UK-based Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plan to build six new five-star hotels in the Middle East.

The new properties will add 2,000 rooms to the regional hotel market. Two are planned to open in Abu Dhabi, and one each to open in Dubai, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

Millennium & Copthorne currently has eight hotels in the Middle East.

The region’s hotel construction market remains active despite a global decline in tourism caused by the financial crisis. Occupancy rates in the Gulf have dropped from 90 per cent in early 2008 to an average of 70 per cent last year (MEED 23:04:09).