HOSPITALITY-

Some 50 new Hilton hotels and 21k rooms spread across 14 brands are currently under construction across the Kingdom, Hilton’s Chief Development Officer for MEA Carlos Khneisser told Asharq Al Awsat. The company aims to increase its footprint to 100 hotels, tapping into a growing tourism industry and making our country one of Hilton’s largest markets.

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In the pipeline: Hilton plans to expand in the Kingdom to 100 hotels and 27.5k rooms by the end of the year, up from its current 20 hotels and 6.5k keys, according to a press release. The global hospitality chain signed agreements to operate Al Ahsa’s first three resorts in March and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel earlier last month.

INFRASTRUCTURE-

The Najran Province will get nine new water and sanitation projects valued at over SAR 551 mn, adding more than 366 km of pipelines, the National Water Company (NWC) said in a statement yesterday.

The details: Seven water projects include over 357 km of water lines and pumping stations with a capacity of 53k cubic meters per day. The NWC will also launch two sanitation projects connecting existing networks in Najran through a new 9 km transmission line and rehabilitate the city’s sewage treatment plant, which has a capacity of 60k cubic meters per day.

EDUCATION-

The Education Ministry partnered with Tuwaiq Academy to establish five tech schools for gifted students in Riyadh, Madinah, the Eastern Province, Qassim, and Jeddah, it said in a press release last Friday. The educational facilities are set to open their doors in the 2025-2026 academic year exclusively for first-year secondary students who are talented in tech, with the aim of enhancing their skills in AI, mechatronics, and cybersecurity, among others.

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