Hilton eyes 200 new restaurants in MidEast

Hilton Worldwide is set to open 200 new restaurants in the Middle East and Africa region over the next three years. In February the group announced it would open 500 restaurants worldwide within three years, inviting restaurateurs to pitch concepts through the website. Simon Lazarus, senior director of F&B, Hilton Worldwide told Hotelier: "We currently have 52 hotels and 41 in the regional pipeline with an average of five outlets in each new hotel. That comes to about 200 new outlets within the [upcoming] hotels in this region over the next three years. "We also have several renovations and refurbishments underway in the region," he added. Hilton Worldwide director of development - MEA Jean-Michel Dixte said: "We have a range of new builds, master plans and renovations globally. "Within the Middle East and Africa, the F&B solutions we offer range from bespoke concepts to prototype concepts, partnership deals and also trying to promote brands we want to get affiliated with, as well as celebrity chefs." Each of the upcoming hotels is likely to comprise a mixture of bespoke solutions as well as branded outlets, revealed Dixte. "We're trying to give some bespoke solutions to each individual property according to the local market and the demand in each city. "So for instance in Dubai we would like to implement 30 percent Hilton original concepts," he explained. Lazarus added: "We will be much more focused on bringing branded outlets to key markets like the UAE, and not ruling out cities like Cairo and so on. If the brand is right, we will put it in." Across the region, Lazarus said up to 35 percent of the group's revenue comes from F&B. "But we have some hotels that make more in food and beverage revenue than rooms revenue; some substantially so. It depends just on the size of the hotels, the number of F&B outlets and the attractiveness."