Banyan Tree Holdings , a leading manager and developer of premium resorts, hotels, spas and galleries, recently appointed Zee Bassila as regional director, marketing - Middle East.

Bassila joined Banyan Tree in 2009 and will move from his current position as director, pre-opening operations based at the corporate headquarters in Singapore, to Dubai.

In this new role, Bassila will report to Audrey Chung, assistant vice president, global marketing network, Banyan Hotels & Resorts.

"The main focus for Zee is to support the sales and marketing efforts of Banyan Tree Al Wadi in addition to growing demand from the Middle East region for our other properties in the Group. The Middle East office will cover the affluent cities of the Gulf and the Levant countries”, said Arthur Kiong, managing director, Hotel Operations Asia Pacific and senior vice president, Group Marketing Services.

A Canadian national, Bassila began his career with the Ritz-Carlton in Quebec before moving to the Middle East, accumulating 12 years of experience with the InterContinental Hotels Group. He also spent some time with as director, sales & marketing in Bahrain, Beirut, Dubai and Kiev.

With close to 30 resorts and hotels, Banyan Tree is currently on an aggressive expansion phase, and expects to almost double its number of properties by 2013, a statement said. – TradeArabia News Service