Hilton, IMG & Destination Properties Collaborate for Thailand's First Internationally Branded Golf Resort & Spa

Destination Properties is developing the new 358 room Doubletree by Hilton Golf Resort & Spa located on the Eastern Seaboard, Thailand’s leading center of industry and technology for many large conglomerates and factories in Thailand. Some of the major international conglomerates that have facilities close to Doubletree by Hilton Golf Resort & Spa include: Samsung, Esso, Caltex, Shell, Hitachi, General Motors, Ford, BMW, LG, and many others.

Hilton Hotels Corporation will manage the Resort with its upscale, full-service Doubletree® hotel brand and will become its first Doubletree by Hilton property to open in Asia. IMG - the world's premier Sports, Entertainment and Media Company through its IMG Golf Course Management will operate and manage the golf course. The property is set for official opening to travelers by early 2008.

Located 25 minutes from Pattaya, 40 minutes from the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport and 60 minutes from downtown Bangkok, the Doubletree by Hilton Golf Resort & Spa will feature 358 rooms and suites which overlook the fairway of the Sriracha Golf Club with spectacular views of the golf course and the Gulf of Thailand. The golf course was designed by renowned architect Gary Player, and was host to the 1993 Thailand Open.

Gary Murray, CEO of Destination Properties says that, “the Doubletree by Hilton Golf Resort & Spa will represent the first internationally branded golf resort in Thailand and the first Doubletree by Hilton in Asia Pacific. Our business will be a mix of long term and short term stay for those customers frequenting the many industries on the Eastern Seaboard.”

Patrick Bowers, Vice President of IMG remarked “IMG’s Golf Course Management division, the leading manager of golf clubs in Asia Pacific expresses our enthusiasm to operate the golf course of Doubletree by Hilton Golf Resort & Spa on a day to day basis. IMG has been operating clubs in the region since 1990 and currently has a portfolio of 16 high profile management or consulting management projects. IMG has a strong commitment to Thailand, having brought the Johnnie Walker Classic to the country several times including the most recent staging March 1 to 4, 2007 in Phuket. We are extremely happy to be in the company of Hilton Hotels and Destination Properties for this project.”

Amenities and services at the Doubletree by Hilton Golf Resort & Spa will include an extensive collection of indoor and outdoor meeting space, day and night golfing, squash courts, tennis courts, a sports bar, a swimming pool, and a traditional Thai spa and Japanese pool spa. Room and suite sizes will range from 35 to 65 square meters, with many including their own private plunge pools.

The Doubletree by Hilton Golf Resort & Spa will be developed in two phases, with the first phase of 223 rooms and suites completed during the next 12 months and the remaining 135 suites developed thereafter.

About Destination Properties Co., Ltd. - is a leading resort real estate developer and investor in Thailand with interests in hotels, golf resorts, and real estate developments in several key resort destinations throughout Thailand. The Group owns the Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa, Shambala Villas Samui, Surin Beach Resort, and the Ramada Resort Karon Beach, Phuket. Other projects currently being developed are the Doubletree by Hilton Golf Resort & Spa (Formerly Sriracha Golf Club), and the ALiLA Phuket Resort. Destination Properties creates “Great Places to Be” and can be found at .

About IMG - is the world's premier Sports, Entertainment and Media Company. IMG is a diversified global business with two major business segments: IMG Sports & Entertainment, and IMG Media. IMG employs over 2,300 people in 30 countries. Forstmann Little & Co. purchased IMG in 2004.

IMG Sports & Entertainment includes: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; client representation in golf, tennis, broadcasting, European football, rugby, cricket, motorsports, coaching, Olympic sports and action sports. In addition, IMG Academies are the world's largest and most advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport training and educational facility, delivering world-class sports training experiences to over 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes each year.

IMG Media, which includes our content production subsidiaries TWI, Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) and Tiger Aspect Productions (TAP), is recognized as a global leader in the delivery of traditional and new media content and services, with Internet, broadband and mobile expertise, transforming how audiences access and interact with content.

IMG Media produces and distributes over 10,000 hours of sports, documentary, drama, comedy, entertainment, popular factual and children’s content annually, over multiple platforms across 200 countries, including award-winning television and radio programming. It also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world's premier sporting events and has the world’s biggest sports archive with more than 200,000 hours of footage.

More information about IMG is available at , and

For media/press information, please contact:

Amante C. Amante Jr. Director of Corporate Communications
Destination Properties (THAILAND)
+662 261 5330
[email protected]

Patrick Bowers
Vice President, IMG (SINGAPORE)
+65 9661 0094
[email protected]