France’s Accor to manage Ibis Styles hotel at Oman convention centre

France’s AccorHotels has announced a management deal with Oman Tourism Development Company (OMRAN) to open the first Ibis Styles property in the sultanate.

The 280-room Ibis Styles Muscat will be located within the new Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC) master development in Madinat al Irfan.

It will include an all-day dining restaurant, a sports bar, gym and swimming pool facilities.

The property is due to open in 2020.

“Ibis Styles Muscat will be a perfect complement to the new state-of-the-art Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre (OCEC), with its value positioning, eclectic design and genuine hospitality, which will appeal to a wide range of clientele and will further widen the MICE market in this destination,” said AccorHotels Middle East and Africa CEO Olivier Granet.

“Our new partnership with OMRAN will also allow us to further explore growth opportunities and to contribute towards the development of the travel and tourism sector in the country.”

The wider OCEC is the country’s largest dedicated meeting, conference and exhibition centre. It includes one five-star, two four-star and one three-star hotel with a combined 1,000 rooms, a business park, retail shopping mall and surrounding nature reserve.

Read: Oman’s new convention centre on track for completion next year

The Madinat Al-Irfan project is intended to become the new downtown for residents, business and visitors in Oman.

Located close to the Muscat International Airport, the 5.7 million sqm site is project to have a living, working and visiting population of approximately 280,000 when ready.

Accor has eight hotels under operation and in the pipeline in Oman and 300 across the Middle East.

The company will expand its regional footprint further after announcing a deal last week to acquire Movenpick Hotels and Resorts from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding and its partners for $567m.

Read: Prince Alwaleed sells Movenpick Hotels to AccorHotels