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Thursday, 09.08.2007
Hyatt builds its first luxury hotel in the Ural region
Ekaterinburg. The Hyatt luxury hotel chain is currently building its first hotel in the Ural region in regional capital Ekaterinburg. It will be the second Hyatt hotel in Russia. The $107 million hotel is intended to host the meeting of the Shanghai group in 2009.
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The Shanghai Organisation for Cooperation comprising Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kirgistan, Tadzhikistan and Uzbekistan is due to meet in Ekaterinburg in the summer of 2009.
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Ekaterinburg set to build more hotels
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Ekaterinburg has attractions, but few tourists reach the town.
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The city is getting ready for the big event by constructing around 20 hotels. In fact, the city authorities claim that 68 new hotels will be built by 2015. But the most prestigious of these will be the five star Hyatt Regency. And this is where the summit’s guests will reside.
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The façade of the twenty storey high building has just been completed, and the interior should be finished by mid 2008. The investor is the Metals and Mining Company of the Urals (UGMK) that usually is more focused on exploiting the region’s rich mineral deposits. The project is planned to break even within eleven years. This might come off, simply because there is huge demand for hotel accommodation in Ekaterinburg. A hotel room currently costs $130-140 per night due to the lack of supply. The municipal authorities believe that the hotel construction programme will solve this problem.
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Ekaterinburg to become a conference centre
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At the same time, Ekaterinburg wants to increase demand. In 2006, 80,000 tourists visited the city. Alone in the first half of 2007, the number of visitors reached 76,000.
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The city’s tourist office is banking especially on an increase in business visitors, and seeks to make Ekaterinburg the conference and trade fair centre at the juncture of Europe and Asia. The location is ideal: The border between the two continents runs only 40km to the west of the city.
(ab/.rufo/
Jekaterinburg)
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