Durrat Al Bahrain, the kingdom's largest planned luxury residential, commercial and tourist resort development, has signed a partnership with Golden Tulip Hotels to manage up to a 100 resort villas at the exclusive gated community.

Golden Tulip, ranked as the second largest hotel group in Europe and operating 60 hotels and resorts in the Middle East and Africa region, will start operating the resort villas by the end of 2012.

Durrat Al Bahrain chief executive officer Jassim Al Jowder said the partnership with Golden Tulip to manage the villa resort segment of the project comes as part of the management's endeavour to make Durrat Al Bahrain a luxury destination to visitors, providing all types of facilities and services such as beach access, swimming pools, recreational and sporting facilities to end users and tourists.

'We have signed with one of the most well-known luxury hotel chains in Bahrain,' he said.

'Golden Tulip has a reputable expertise in managing hotels and resorts in the region.

'The association will allow Golden Tulip to manage, market and operate the resort's inner villas,' he added.

Golden Tulip Hotels' vice-president and Mena region managing director Dr Amine Moukarzel said they are looking forward to starting operations at Durrat Al Bahrain.

'We are also proud to be part of this prestigious project and will exert our best efforts to manage the resort villas according to the highest international standards with a local flavour. 'This new venture will be an asset to our portfolio,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service