OREANDA-NEWS. February 3, 2009. Just one month after hotel-brand Park Inn entered Murmansk, another international hotel-chain says they will do the same.

We are one of the few companies that truly believe in the Russian market, says Director of Operations for Russia and CIS, Accor, Alexis Delaroff.

Accor operates 14 different brands of hotels and it is not named which brand will enter Murmansk. Accor’s two brands currently established in Russia are Ibis and Novotel. Ibis is a popular tourist hotel centrally located in St. Petersburg, while Novotel Moscow Airport was one of the first foreign hotel brands to enter Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Accor does not build their own hotels, management contracts and variable leases are the priority. In a marked presentation  last September Accor says Russia is an under-penetrated market presenting strong development opportunities with high returns on investment and good profitability on management contracts.

It is not clear if Accor will take over one of the excisting hotels in Murmansk or make a contract with a planned hotel still to be built.

- We have over 30 signed contracts all over Russia – from Kaliningrad to Irkutsk, and from Murmansk to Sochi. This is the strength of our portfolio of brands that allow us to find an answer to each specific request of each specific location, added Delaroff in the interview.