Kuwait Times:  Kuwait-based Action Hotels and Accor Hospitality have completed the development of their first partnered hotel outside the GCC with the official opening of Ibis Glen Waverley in Melbourne, Australia. Action Hotels has also announced another 10 hotels under development, predominantly in the Middle East.

The new 155-room Ibis hotel was officially opened in the presence of Sheikh Mubarak Abdulla Al Mubarak Al Sabah, Vice Chairman of Kuwait based Action Group Holdings the parent company of Action Hotels and Action Group Australia, the Victorian State Minister of Tourism and Special Events Hon. Tim Holding and Simon McGrath, Accor Hospitality's Vice President for Australia.

The development is the first of a number of hotel projects that Action Hotels are currently planning for the Australian market including other projects for Melbourne and the construction of a 314-room hotel in downtown Brisbane. Ibis Glen Waverley is the second Ibis project to be completed by Action Hotels this year following the recent opening of the Ibis Salmiya in Kuwait.

Speaking at the official opening in Melbourne, Sheikh Mubarak A.M. Al-Sabah, Vice Chairman of Action Group Holdings said: "Action Hotels is proud to have successfully completed our first major hotel project in Australia and to be one of the first Kuwaiti companies to invest in the country.

Our focus is on well branded mid market hotels where we believe there is significant growing demand, especially in the Middle East, with increased travel and the growth of low cost airlines making travel easier and more affordable than ever before. As a business we also believe that hotels play an important role in their contribution to the local economy where they are based and that is very important to us as Action Hotels.

Action Hotels has established a powerful partnership with the global Accor Group to develop hotel projects initially in the Middle East and Australia and includes the construction of both Ibis and Novotel developments. In addition to the recently opened Ibis Salmiya that stretches to include magnificent sights of the breathtaking Arabian Gulf seafront, future developments of Action Hotels include another Accor hotel project. Ibis Sharq, a 160 room hotel located within the heart of Kuwait's business development district, Sharq area, and will be also be adjacent to one of the largest, mixed use retail shopping center developments in Kuwait. Ibis Sharq is planned to operate in May 2009.