Northern Ireland received a jobs and tourism boost yesterday with the announcement that five new hotels are to be built in the North at a cost of £50 million (€74 million), creating up to 200 jobs.

Andras House, run buy Lord Diljit Rana, is to build the hotels under the international Ibis brand, which has more than 750 hotels in 36 countries. Ibis hotels form part of the French-owned Accor Group.

"Work on the first hotel, in King Street, Belfast, will start within the next few weeks and should see the first Ibis hotel in Northern Ireland open for business early in 2008," said Lord Rana yesterday. "The new hotel will contribute substantially to initiatives to enhance the city centre and the King Street/Castle Street area in particular.

"We anticipate that the expansion will create up to 200 new jobs throughout Northern Ireland and see Andras House become Northern Ireland's leading hotel chain."

At present Andras House has four hotels in Belfast, employing 300 people.

The SDLP MP for South Belfast Dr Alasdair McDonnell said the announcement indicated that tourism was growing in Northern Ireland and that "international business sees a wealth of opportunity in the Northern Ireland tourist industry".