Sena Hotel Developments Limited (SHDL), the owning company of Radisson Water Garden Hotel Dhaka, started building a five-star hotel in Chittagong in May, said the company's managing director yesterday.
Brig Gen Mohammad Manzur Qader also said the company plans to build a three-star hotel in Khulna to increase tourist flow in that region.
Meanwhile, SHDL launched yesterday Sena Hotel Management Institute on Radisson premises to train people in food and beverage and fit them for local and international hospitality sector.
Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of SHDL Gen Moeen U Ahmed inaugurated the institute.
“We've found that there is no five-star hotel for tourists and businesspeople in Chittagong, the country's commercial capital. The port city is also connected with such tourist attractions as Cox's Bazar, Rangamati and Bandarban,” Qader said.
Being built at Lalkhan Bazar, the five-star hotel --Sena Garden Hotel Chittagong -- will have 200 rooms with some exclusive amenities such as golf playing facility and river cruise from Kaptai to Rangamati.
Qader said the hotel would start operation by 2013 and expected an occupancy rate of around 60 percent, which he said would be viable for the first-ever five-star hotel in Chittagong. SHDL hopes Radisson would also invest in the venture.
The construction works of the SHDL's planned three-star hotel in Khulna, Tiger Garden Hotel, will begin next year.
The hotel will help explore the Sundarbans, the biggest mangrove forest in the world, and attract more tourists to the area, Qader said.
SHDL's first venture was Radisson Water Garden Hotel, inaugurated in February 2006. The hotel is a chain of US-based Carlson Hotels Worldwide. SHDL is a joint venture of Sena Kalyan Sangstha and Army Welfare Trust.