Minor Hotels has signed an agreement with Egyptian hospitality group Sunrise Resorts and Cruises to form a new joint venture company that will open up to 50 hotels over the next decade. Minor Hotels is a global hospitality group with hotels, resorts and branded residences in 59 countries and Sunrise Resorts and Cruises seven Nile cruise ships and 27 resorts – with destinations across Egypt as well as Greece, Zanzibar

Fitness, wellness and spa brand, Equinox, has been announced as the operator of a new luxury hotel in Nashville, US. This will be the the second property for Equinox Hotels, following the opening of its flagship in New York City’s Hudson Yards in March 2019. Equinox Hotels has plans to expand to 33 locations globally over the next decade. Last year, the company announced plans to open a resort on

Luxury hospitality group Proper Hotels has launched its first health and fitness, wellness and athletic performance membership at the Santa Monica Proper Club in Los Angeles. Proper Hotels is a hospitality company focused on luxury design and creating cultural connection. These new club memberships are the brand’s next-generation take on a modern country club – for those seeking a third space that meets their lifestyle requirements for health and fitness

Hotels incorporating significant wellness amenities experienced strong top-line recovery in 2024, generating more than twice the Total Revenue per Available Room (TRevPAR) compared to hotels with no wellness income, according to the latest Wellness Real Estate Report by RLA Global, produced in partnership with P and L benchmarking firm HotStats. The average TRevPAR at major wellness properties was 56 per cent higher than at minor wellness hotels – exceeding the

IHG has signed an agreement to open the Even Hotel Dammam in Saudi Arabia, the debut property for its wellness brand in the Middle East. The 300-key property is slated to open in January 2029. The Even concept was launched in 2012 and was one of the first brands in the sector to integrate wellness features into its hospitality concept, with adaptive in-room fitness features, healthy food and beverage options

Tripolers, a travel tourism agency headquartered in Beijing, is working with architects Holloway Li to build a series of boutique luxury hotels following the route of the ancient Silk Road in western China. The first of these sites will be the 80-key Tripolers Oasis Spa Hotel, which is due to open in 2026 in a working vineyard on the edge of the Gobi Desert in Dunghuang province. The resort and

Wellscape is a new company, spearheaded by industry figure Brian Paris, set to revolutionise spa, wellness and hospitality guest journeys with advanced immersive visual environments. After collaborating with a team skilled in creating VR settings for film and TV, Paris is using AI and high-resolution LED panels to bring healing spaces to life with naturescapes, light, scent and soundscapes – some of which are composed by wellness music provider Myndstream.

Fitness-focused hospitality brand and management company Equinox Hotels has announced plans to open a modern new resort on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba in northwest Saudi Arabia. The venture is part of the ambitious US$500 billion (€462.7 billion, £396 billion) Neom* giga-project. The new resort, Equinox Resort Treyam, will be a centrepiece in Magna**, Neom’s new luxury coastal region, which encompasses 12 destinations along 120km of coastline. Magna

SH Hotels & Resorts has revealed it will take its Treehouse boutique hotel brand outside London in 2023, when it opens its second and third sites in Manchester and Miami respectively. Speaking to CLAD the company revealed plans to create a new-concept gym for the Manchester property – the first of its kind – with custom-designed space hoppers and other novel workout concepts as part of a playful new approach to exercise.

Hotel and hospitality designer Jean-Philippe Nuel has explained that working on older buildings often makes for more interesting results. Speaking to CLAD in an interview, Nuel said: "Paradoxically, historic buildings often result in more creative projects than new builds because the constraints mean certain situations are unavoidable and this allows us to break the usual standards." "I find historic buildings inspiring," he continued. "The project becomes a story that we

A long-proposed US$3.8bn (€3.4bn, £2.9bn) theme park at Hwaseong, 45km (30mi) from South Korea's capital Seoul, looks set to go ahead after the country's finance minister pledged the government's support. To be built by Shinsegae Property Consortium, the park will feature five hotels, an 18-hole golf course and three shopping malls. Reports suggest that huge Korean pop music (K-pop) and natural history areas will act as the centrepieces of the

Ace Hotel has partnered with Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and Kengo Kuma & Associates for two 2020 openings in Toronto and Kyoto, respectively. Founded in 1999, Ace has eight locations across North America and one in London. The boutique operator seeks to embrace local culture with each of its hotels, which can result in strikingly different designs from place to place. Ace Hotel Toronto, which is slated to open in mid-to-late 2020,

Radisson has added the Edwardian Manchester to its luxury Radisson Collection hotels portfolio following a £12m (US$16m, €14m) renovation of its Grade II-listed Free Trade Hall venue. The hotel's revamp combines modern design with elements referencing and incorporating the palazzo heritage of the building, which was constructed between 1853 and 1856 to host cultural and public events. There are 263 rooms and suites, ranging in size from 28sq m (301sq

New York-based architectural practice Cooper Carry has won this year's Radical Innovation Awards for disruptive ideas in the hospitality sector with its collapsible, modular construction concept called Connectic. The basis of Connectic is a truncated octahedron unit that can be connected to the face of others to create structures that can be reshaped and resized as required. Cooper Carry explained to CLAD that the shape was chosen partly via a

Marine works crucial to the development of a major resort in Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea have moved a step closer with the awarding of a construction contract to Archirodon. The marine infrastructure specialists have been appointed by The Red Sea Development Company to build a 3.3km (2.05 miles) crossing between the island of Shurayrah and the mainland, to enable the development of The Red Sea Project: a proposed

Virgin Galactic believes it has the necessary financial muscle to achieve commercialisation of its space tourism flights, after merging with investment partnership Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH). The transaction, which is due to complete during the second half of 2019, will deliver US$1.3bn (€1.16bn, £1.04bn) of equity to Virgin Galactic, made up of US$1bn (€890m, £800m) in common stock of the combined company (at US$10 per share) and up to US$300m

The Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) Angkor – once the official residence of the French governor of the Cambodian protectorate, and a pied-à-terre for journalists and émigrés – is set to reopen its doors this spring, following a US$60m (€52.7m, £45m) renovation. Designed to evoke the "tropical modernism" of present-day Siem Reap, the mansion-like hotel will be managed by international hospitality group Avani Hotels and Resorts and feature 60 new rooms

Luxury group The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts will soon debut the Himalayas Lake View – the first tented eco-villas in Nepal. Designed by Wonaw & Associates and Coconut Groove Interiors, the eight villas – which range between 40 and 82 sq m – are located on the shore of Phewa Lake in Pokhara. The resort provides a number of wellness and leisure offerings, such as Ayurvedic massages, access to a

Turkish architects Project Design Group have designed the KentPlus Yalova Wellness Spa Resort in Armutlu, Yalova in Turkey, which is due to open at the end of this year. The project includes three five-star thermal hotels with more than 1,300 bedrooms and more than 1,000 apartments for timeshare and full-time living. A Physiotherapy Medical Centre will provide thermal water healing, together with detox, physiotherapy and rehabilitation services. The complex will

Marriott International’s W Hotels brand has re-entered the Australian market with the opening of the W Brisbane, a new hotel that features fast-paced urban style and modern design with a “decidedly cheeky Aussie point of view”. Owned by Shayher Group, the 312-bedroom W Brisbane is located riverside in the city’s central business district. With interiors from Nic Graham & Associates, the hotel embraces Brisbane’s connection to Australian identity and uses

Marriott International has announced plans to debut its Westin brand in the UK, with Westin London City scheduled to open in 2020. Owned by 4C Hotel Group and managed by RBH, The Westin London City will boast a prime riverfront location in the heart of the City of London. The company said the hotel signing illustrates that the demand for wellbeing continues to propel Westin’s growth. Westin also has upcoming

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is to expand its luxury estate in the UK after securing a deal to rebrand and operate 13 upscale hotels. IHG will operate the properties on behalf of French real estate group Foncière des Régions (FdR), which acquired the hotels from an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group for a reported US$1.1bn (£830m) earlier this month. The deal will see IHG introducing its boutique brand, Kimpton Hotels

The Ace Hotel Group has announced it will open its first property in Japan, with architect Kengo Kuma commissioned to design a “monument to the beauty and unique legacy of Kyoto”, transforming the city’s 92-year-old former Central Telephone Office. The company has partnered with the Japanese NTT Urban Development Corporation to open the Ace Hotel Kyoto in winter 2019. Located on the former grounds of the imperial palace, the project

W Hotels Worldwide, owned by hospitality giant Marriott International, has opened a boutique property in Panama – the first W in Central America. The W Panama is situated in the newly-opened, 50-storey Evolution Tower located near Uruguay Street in the Panama City’s business district. The hotel’s design – created by Studio Gaia and the internal design team of W Hotels – was conceived to “blend centuries of history and culture

The hospitality arm of luxury goods giant Bvlgari has announced plans to open a hotel in Paris in 2020, bringing its international collection to eight properties. Italian design firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Parisian architects Valode & Pistre are converting a historic building on Avenue George V – adjacent to the Champs Elysees in the famous and fashionable Triangle d’Or area of the French capital – into the 66-room

Rosewood Hotel Group has launched a new hotel brand, Khos, with a focus on the modern business traveller and inspired by “the energy, art, innovation, creativity, style and dynamism of modern-day Asia”. Derived from the Mongolian word meaning 'pair', Khos will be a global brand, with locations in capital cities, urban portals, business centres and resort destinations. The first Khos hotels will be announced in 2018 and opened later in

Como Hotels and Resorts is opening its third location in Bali in February 2018, the Como Uma Canggu. With 119 bedrooms, the Como Uma Canggu will be the brand’s 14th location worldwide and will include a Como Shambhala Retreat with seven treatment rooms. Asian-inspired therapies – including the signature Como Shambhala Massage, a deep-tissue massage – will be offered, along with yoga and Pilates classes and personal training at the