UAE. The International Hospitality Trade and Training Zone (Ihottz), a
US$ 2.8 billion joint venture between the Investment and Development
Office of the Government of Ras Al Khaimah and the US-based Argentum
Development Company to create a regional hub for the global hospitality
industry, will host around 16 world renowned educational institutions
at the 90- acre ihottz Hospitality Training Campus which will come up
in Ras Al Khaimah.
Located alongside the Emirates Road on a 350 acre plot, ihottz will
include a 260-acre hospitality industry free trade zone development and
an additional 90-acre for the ihottz Hospitality Training Campus to
address the needs of every segment of the international hospitality and
tourism industry.
Bobby Batmanghelidg, President and CEO of Argentum Development
Company, announced at the Ras Al Khaimah Conference 2008 today that the
ihottz Hospitality Training Campus will start offering educational
programmes within 18 months.
"We have teamed up with 16 different international centres of
education focused on hospitality sector to offer a comprehensive array
of academic and training programmes to address the hospitality
industry's human capital challenge which is going to be the largest
impediment to the proposed huge growth in the hospitality sector," he
said.
Batmanghelidg said that the ihottz educational campus is designed to
accommodate as many as 15,000 students upon completion, in rotations of
three to six week programmes plus longer courses. He said that the US$
2.8 billion project is being financed by Western capital and ihottz has
secured half of the project cost already.
Ihottz educational campus will have two centres providing the
two-year Hospitality MBA programme, a Culinary School with
international recognition and a College of Hotel Administration, run by
one of the leading international brands, which will offer four-year and
two-year courses.
"The campus will also host an Entrepreneurial College, which will
provide training to the entire spectrum of staff already employed in
the hospitality industry. It will also have a Hospitality Technical
College, which will train and certify candidates for a specific
environment in the hospitality industry, ranging from front office and
security to supervision," he added.
He said that the objective of the ihottz initiative was to create a
critical mass for attracting students for the hospitality industry on a
global basis and added that talks are on with at least six
international hotel chains to locate their regional training
headquarters at ihottz campus.
"The campus will have 3.5 million square feet of built up space
housing 16 different educational institutions including, Universities,
colleges and other training centres. It will also house student
residential facilities, and full spectrum of in-house educational and
entertainment facilities. The educational component will start
delivering in another 18 months," Batmanghelidg added.
The
industrial component of ihottz, located on a 250- acre plot in an
adjacent free zone environment, will offer integrated services like
hospitality industrial manufacturing and distribution facilities,
commercial refrigeration warehouse and other hotel support services
like laundry operations, ice manufacturing, an abbatoir and industrial
baking.
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