Golden Tulip Top Hospitality Group

Amersfoort (NL)/Manchester (UK) -- Golden Tulip is proud to announce the addition of its first location in Ireland to the growing portfolio of sites for the Tulip Inn brand. Golden Tulip (UK), the UK hotel development and franchise arm of Dutch-based Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts, has acquired a 25-year lease on a two-acre site at the entrance to Airside Retail and Business Park near Dublin Airport for a 155-room hotel - its largest hotel to date. Golden Tulip UK will also manage the hotel which, when completed, will have a value of some ?20 million (£13.8 million).

The Tulip Inn Dublin hotel is one of four new Tulip Inn brand properties, which form part of an ambitious expansion programme for Golden Tulip UK with a target of 15 more hotels within the next three years. The other new hotels are Tulip Inn Newcastle Gateshead, which recently opened, and Tulip Inn Portsmouth, which opened its doors to the public on 15th November 2004. The Tulip Inn Leeds Castleford opens in March 2005.

Golden Tulip (UK) is currently in negotiation at a number of hotel sites across the UK for both the Tulip Inn and Golden Tulip brands. Discussions at locations in London, Belfast, Coventry, Cambridge, Epsom and Swindon are at an advanced stage, while planning permission for extensions at the Tulip Inn hotels in Manchester and Portsmouth have been submitted.

Brian Scurrah, development director at Golden Tulip (UK), said: "Tulip Inns are stylish and affordable hotels and are already performing well in Manchester and Glasgow. Next year Dublin airport is projected to handle up to 18 million passengers and with Dublin itself also attracting nearly 3.5 million visitors annually, I am confident this hotel will prove equally popular with both business and leisure users."

Hans Kennedie, president & CEO of Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts, add: "We are extremely pleased with the addition of the Tulip Inn Dublin. Ireland is a completely new territory for Golden Tulip, and we are positive that the hotel will be important step into developing further sites in Ireland."

Kennedie, continues: "Expansion in the UK is a key focus and we will have six hotels operational by early 2005. Our three-year target is for 2,000 bedrooms and the funding agreed earlier this year will help us achieve this."

Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts is a privately owned franchise company with its head office based in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, franchising some 270 hotels across 41 countries, with the majority of hotels being located in urban destinations across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. Through its commercial alliance with TOP International Hotels, a German based hotel consortium, the combined portfolio comprises over 43,000 rooms in approximately 390 hotels. Golden Tulip offers a unique franchise concept for two brands, designed to implement international standards, whilst maintaining local flavours: Golden Tulip for the four and five star business and resort hotels and Tulip Inn for the three star category. TOP International Hotels offers hotel reservations, marketing and sales services to independent hotels.

Golden Tulip UK, which is based in North Yorkshire, is the UK arm of Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts. In March 2004 Golden Tulip (UK) secured significant additional financial funding from Morley Fund Management, which will primarily be used to expand the Tulip Inn brand. Golden Tulip is expanding the Golden Tulip hotel and Tulip Inn brands in the UK and Ireland through a combination of developing existing hotels and new builds. Golden Tulip hotels are 3-4 star properties with a strong individual flavour while Tulip Inns are stylish and affordable with innovative interiors and located near town and city centres.

Sione Götte
Director of Public Relations
+41 21 510 1581
Golden Tulip