Sonesta to Open Fancy Resorts in Argentina

American hotel chain Sonesta will hang out its shingle in Argentina by opening lodging facilities in ten cities as part of its expansion plan throughout the entire region, local newspaper Hoy reported today.

The US company has inked contracts to build a couple of hotels in Buenos Aires. Groubd-breaking works for one of those establishments are supposed to get cracking by the end of the ongoing year.

That will be Sonesta´s first step to reach out to other nine cities across Argentina, including Bariloche, El Calafate, Mar del Plata and Ushuaia.

In addition to Argentina, the hotel chain is eyeing prospects in Brazil´s Sao Paolo to increase the number of establishments under its belt in the region to twenty.

And Sonesta is desperately trying to keep up with the Jones because British group Hilton announced earlier this week it has projects of its own in the offing in Buenos Aires and other parts of Argentina.

Sonesta owns 29 hotels in half a dozen countries and churned out $84.9 million worth of revenues in 2004.