TWO FIRSTS FOR HILTON / 'Venice and Moscow'

London 11. 3. 2003 (PROTEXT/ots) - Hilton International,today revealed plans for two major hotel developments in Moscowand Venice. The 436 guest-room, five star Hilton Red Square,Moscow will be situated on Red Square adjacent to The Kremlinand minutes from the Maly and Bolshoi theatres. Due to openearly in 2006, Hilton will manage the hotel on behalf ofdeveloper Red Square Company, who is building the hotel on thesite of the former Intourist hotel. In addition to offering thelargest guest rooms in Moscow at 36 sq metres, the hotel willinclude 1700 sq metres of conference space catering for up to 800delegates, making it the largest conference hotel in the Russiancapital. Two restaurants, two bars (one a cigar bar), a healthclub, swimming pool and spa will also be included in thedevelopment in addition to a casino. Existing HiltonInternational hotels in Eastern Europe include Sofia, Bucharest,Prague and Budapest (two hotels). The Molino Stucky Hilton,Venice is scheduled to open early 2005 boasting 380 guest-roomsover eight floors. Situated on the island of la Giudecca, fiveminutes from St Marks Square in the centre of Venice, the hotelwill offer two restaurants, a terrace overlooking the city,horizon pool and a fitness & beauty centre. A 7500 sq. metreconference centre will cater for up to 1500 delegates. The31,000 sq. metre historic former pasta mill is being developed byAcqua Pia Antica Marcia. Plans for the new hotel will not alterthe façade or industrial structure of the original Molino Stuckymill, which was Venice's first gothic revival building,originally built in 1895. Hilton International currentlyoperates four hotels in Italy: Milan, Sorrento and Rome (twohotels). Commenting on the new hotels, David Michels, ChiefExecutive, Hilton Group, said: "It is always a pleasure tounveil plans for new Hilton hotels but with prestige locationsin Red Square, Moscow and Venice the pleasure is even greater.Yet again Hilton will soon be offering two more first classhotels in unique locations." Notes to Editors HiltonInternational (HI), an operating division of the UK based HiltonGroup plc, owns the rights to the Hilton brand name throughoutthe world, with the exception of North America. HI operates over400 hotels, with some 250 branded Hilton, over 150 under themid-market Scandic brand plus 15 luxury Conrad hotels. HiltonInternational employs over 44,000 staff in over 70 countries. Aglobal marketing alliance between Hilton International and theNorth American based Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC), extendsthe number of hotels operated by both companies worldwide toover 2,400 - over 500 of which are branded Hilton. For moreinformation on Hilton Group, please visit our corporate website,at: www.hiltongroup.com High resolution Hilton images areavailable for the media to download free of charge on:www.vismedia-online.com ots Original Text Service: Hilton Groupplc Internet: http://www.presseportal.de For further mediainformation, please contact: Leslie McGibbon, Head of PublicRelations, Hilton Group plc Tel: +44 20 7856 8293 Email:leslie_mcgibbon@hilton.com

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