Ducasse to open second Adour restaurant in USA and other international news

Ducasse to open an Adour restaurant in Washington D.C.
French chef-restaurateur Alain Ducasse will open a new Adour restaurant at the newly-renovated St Regis hotel in Washington D.C. this September. The Starwood Hotels hotel and restaurant will follow in the footsteps of its sister restaurant in the St Regis New York which opened in January. The 82-year-old hotel recently completed a 16-month renovation, including a redesign of the guest rooms and suites, lobby, ballrooms and meeting spaces. The 65-seat Adour restaurant will feature Brazilian walnut wood and matte black lacquer, as well as a 45-seat bar.

Hyatt Regency plans £50m five star resort in Vietnam
Hyatt Regency is planning to launch a $100m (£50m) five-star resort project in the port of Da Nang in central Vietnam. Scheduled to open in 2010, the Hyatt Regency Danang Resort will comprise 255 rooms, as well as 150 houses and 30 two-storey villas. The property will be located near the Da Nang International Airport and three UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the My Son Cham ruins. Hyatt Regency will be the third five-star hotel in Da Nang, Vietnam's third largest city.

Rezidor expands its portfolio in South Africa and Africa
Hotel group Rezidor is continuing to expand aggressively in Africa, having signed up five new hotels since the beginning of the year. The five new hotels include a 192-room Park Inn, which is expected to open in Sandton, Johannesburg, in 2010, ahead of the FIFA World Cup. The other four hotels are Radisson hotels in the Libyan city of Tripoli, Nairobi in Kenya, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Egypt's capital city of Cairo. Rezidor currently operates five Radisson hotels in South Africa, and is also considering Cape Town as a possible site for a Missoni hotel.

Raffles hotel deal falls through
The sale of the iconic Raffles hotel in Singapore has fallen through, according to reports. A spokeswoman for the consortium led by former Credit Suisse banker Mark Pawley that was to have bought the hotel said: "We regret to say that the sale will not be completed as planned." The hotel owner Fairmont Raffles Hotels International was to have secured a long-term management contract, reportedly for 40 years, to manage the hotel under its hotel management arm, Raffles Hotels & Resorts.

By Gemma Sharkey

E-mail your comments to Gemma Sharkey here.