French hotel group co-finances luxury hotel in Agadir

The French hotel group "ACCOR" is co-financing the construction of a luxury hotel in the Atlantic southern city of Agadir.

The 1,300 room hotel, to be built over 9.7 hectares, will include 3 restaurants, a thalasso-therapy center that can accommodate 120 persons, conference halls, and many leisure facilities.

Accor will provide 5O percent of the financing, i.e. 300 million Dirhams (about $26.08 million). The remaining 5O percent will be provided by a Moroccan bank (BMCE), Al-Watania insurance group, CFG, the first Moroccan business bank, and the French Vivendi group.

The hotel construction works are to be launched by mid-September 2001.

The founder and general manager of this world's largest hotel and tourism group, Gerard Pelisson, is currently visiting Agadir for talks with local authorities on this project.

Some 2.5 million tourists visited Morocco in 2000. The figure is expected to reach 4 million in 2003 and to jump to 10 million in 2010. To meet this expected demand, the accommodation capacity will be raised to 30,000 beds in 2003 and 160,000 in 2010.