InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, has announced it has signed an agreement with Kuwaiti-owned Almadina Real Estate Development to open a 442-room Crowne Plaza Resort in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. The hotel is currently under development on the manmade Marjan Island, giving it the ideal seafront resort location for attracting leisure and business tourism. cheduled to open in 2015, Crowne Plaza Resort Ras Al Khaimah will span more than 18,000 square metres and feature nine food and beverage outlets. These include an all-day dining restaurant with show kitchen, an alfresco dining terrace, a cigar lounge, two coffee shops, a pool bar, and traditional bar and nightclub. Corporate guests from the region are well catered for with an expert Crowne Plaza events team and six state-of-the-art meeting rooms. The hotel’s state-of-the-art leisure and fitness facilities will include a spa, fitness centre and beauty salon, as well as nursery and indoor souk. The resort will be located on the Marjan Island development, which sprawls across 2.7 million square metres of reclaimed land.  Close to Ras Al Khaimah International Airport and only an hour’s drive from Dubai the resort is expected to attract both international tourists and local UAE residents. Pascal Gauvin, IHG’s Chief Operating Officer, for India, Middle East and Africa, said: “The Marjan Island development is set to become an exciting destination, and it is the perfect setting for our first Crowne Plaza Resort in the UAE. From gulftoday