The long-term strengthening of the market and competitive position of the Steigenberger Hotel Group is one of the main aims of its new majority shareholder, the Egyptian tourism corporation Travco Group. Particular focus will be given to the international expansion of the brands Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts and InterCityHotel. This was announced today by Hamed El Chiaty, founder and owner of the Travco Group, together with the Management Board of Steigenberger Hotels AG, at a press conference in Frankfurt am Main.

“The takeover of the Steigenberger Hotel Group represents an important strategic milestone on the expansion course that Travco Group has been following for so many years. It is a way of improving our position in the hotel and tourism industry”, said Hamed El Chiaty of his reasons for acquiring Steigenberger Hotels AG. Along with his family, Hamed El Chiaty became the new majority shareholder of the company at the end of August 2009. His Cairo-based company, Travco Group, is the largest tourism corporation in Egypt and a leading force in the Middle East. Its core businesses include an Incoming Agency plus numerous hotels and cruise ships. The group recently joined forces with Air Arabia to set up a new airline company, “Air Arabia Egypt”, which will fly to destinations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The expansion laid out in Steigenberger’s 2013+ corporate strategy is primarily aimed at injecting renewed vitality into the two brands of Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts and InterCityHotel. More Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts and mid-range hotels of the InterCityHotel brand are planned in European cities and in the Arab region. They will perfectly complement the existing hotel portfolio of the Travco Group, which comprises the brands JAZ, Iberotel and Sol Y Mar. Acquisition of the Steigenberger Hotel Group has enabled the Travco Group to enter the business hotel market, particularly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Steigenberger’s Chief Executive Officer, André Witschi, is convinced that the strategic corporate aim of quality leadership will primarily be achieved through investment in existing and new hotels, a streamlining of the portfolio and a systematic expansion plan. “We will continue to invest in improving the quality of our hotels. Furthermore the international expansion will help us to significantly increase brand awareness for Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts and InterCityHotel.”

Contracts for eleven hotels with around 2,400 rooms have already been signed and further hotels are at various stages of planning. In 2010 and 2011 InterCityHotels will open in five new locations in Germany; at the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport and in Bonn, Darmstadt, Mannheim and Ingolstadt. 2011 will also see the opening of two grand hotels of the Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts brand; in Leipzig and on the island of Usedom.

“The change of shareholder puts the Steigenberger Hotel Group in a better financial position than in recent times. This will allow us to reach our strategic and financial goals significantly faster”, stated Matthias Heck, Chief Financial Officer of Steigenberger Hotels AG. “Naturally the Steigenberger Hotel Group is not unaffected by the current reduction in bookings. But it is now in a position to make use of the situation by enhancing structures and processes to improve the productivity of the hotels and the company as a whole, not just in the short-term but on a long-term basis.”

A further positive effect of the takeover of the Steigenberger Hotel Group by the Travco Group is the emergence of operative synergies. Opportunities for these will arise in the areas of Sales, Marketing and E-Commerce, Purchasing, IT and Business Development.

With Travco Group as its new majority shareholder the Steigenberger Hotel Group will continue to build on its leading position and achieve stronger international positioning. The focus will remain on the key objectives of the corporate strategy: quality leadership, increased profitability and expansion.

Steigenberger Hotels AG, based in Frankfurt, currently operates 81 hotels in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands and Egypt. The umbrella brand of the Steigenberger Hotel Group covers two individual brands: Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts, with 50 Upscale and Luxury Hotels, and InterCityHotel with 31 hotels in the upper mid-range.

Travco Group International Holding S.A.E. (Travco Group), based in Egypt, is one of the largest integrated tourism groups in the Arab region. The Group comprises a large number of companies operating in the fields of tourism and hospitality and has assets of over € 1.25 billion. This includes a portfolio of 43 hotels and nine more underway, with capacity exceeding 10,500 rooms, which are operated by Travco’s hospitality brands “JAZ”, “Iberotel” and “Sol Y Mar” in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. It also operates the largest fleet on the Nile, comprising 22 cruise ships with over 1,300 cabins managed by the group’s own “Travcotels” and “Iberotel”. At the beginning of September, Travco Group joined forces with Air Arabia, the market leader in Arab budget airlines, to form the joint venture “Air Arabia Egypt”. Travco Group is one of the main tourism companies in the Middle East and is a leading force in Egypt's travel, tourism and hotel industry. Their Incoming Agency Travco Travel – a Joint Venture with TUI AG – caters to over 1.3 million guests per year with over 1,000 buses and 200 luxury limousines. The company organises a wide range of travel packages in Egypt and via its network of international offices in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Syria, China, Japan, Great Britain and Germany and soon Jordan. Their main source markets are Germany, Russia, Italy, France and the Great Britain. Travco Properties is their development arm and the division in charge of construction and marketing for their real estate projects on total land banks of more than 10 million square meters. Travco Group is the brainchild of its Chairman and CEO Hamed El Chiaty, who founded the company in 1979. Today it is still fully owned by the El Chiaty family and run by Hamed El Chiaty, his wife Dora and children Karim and Tania.

Christopher Holschier
Director Corporate Communications
+49 69 66564-422
H World International