SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), September 21 (SeeNews) – Saudi Arabia-based property development company Al Shiddi Group opened a hotel of the Swissotel brand in Sarajevo on Thursday in a gala ceremony, following a soft opening in July, Bosnian media reported.
The hotel, which offers 218 luxury rooms and panoramic views of the city center and the surrounding mountains, is expected to attract tourists to Sarajevo, news broadcaster N1 reported late on Thursday.
Al Shiddi Group entered into a franchise agreement in April last year with Swissotel, part of French hotel chain AccorHotels, for the development of a new hotel in Sarajevo.
"This project was designed to last 100 years, even 200 years," Sulaiman Al-Shiddi, Al Shiddi Group president, said during the opening ceremony.
The hotel, besides restaurants and conference rooms, houses wellness and spa facilities. It is part of the Al-Shiddi Group's Sarajevo City Centre (SCC).
Al Shiddi Group was founded in 1975 and today it employs more than 1000 people in Europe, Africa and Asia. In Bosnia, it operates SCC which includes a 49 000 sq m shopping mall, an office tower and a hotel.