A LEADING hotel group based in York has demonstrated its confidence in an upturn in the fortunes of UK tourism by commissioning a huge extension to its headquarters.

Best Western - the largest hotel brand in Britain - has given the go-ahead for a major office extension to its national headquarters in Clifton Moor, by design and build experts Severfield-Reeve Projects.

Work on the £500,000, two-storey extension at Best Western's HQ at Clifton Moor Business Park, York, has now begun and is due to be completed this autumn.

Thirsk-based Severfield-Reeve Projects was invited to carry out the new 11,000 sq ft purpose-designed extension after designing and building Best Western's £1million 15,350 sq ft headquarters which opened in 1997.

Best Western, a hotel-chain membership and purchasing organisation, which represents more than 320 independent hotels in the UK and employs 120 people in York, has steadily expanded in recent years and the new extension will better accommodate its administration and staff.

David Hayes, Best Western chief executive, said: "The last few years have been particularly difficult for the national tourism industry because of the combined problems of flooding, foot and mouth and, more recently, last year's September 11 atrocities, all of which led to a massive downturn in tourism and hotel bookings.

"This new extension has been planned since early 2001 when we started talking to Severfield-Reeve Projects. However, it has taken until now for us to build up enough faith to go ahead. We are entering the new financial year with confidence and proceeding with this extension is a demonstration of that. We were delighted with Severfield-Reeve Project's single-source approach when it developed our original headquarters building. Design and build worked far better for us than the traditional route of separately hiring an architect and builders and so we are very pleased to continue working with Severfield-Reeve Projects."

Beacon, Best Western's separate purchasing division, also operates out of the Clifton Moor headquarters. Beacon is the largest purchasing organisation for the independent UK hospitality sector, with more than 2,300 members including hotels, golf clubs, leisure complexes and restaurants.

Lindsay Ross, managing director of Severfield-Reeve Projects, said: "We are very pleased to have been selected again by Best Western. The original building project was a mutual success and we look forward to a repeat performance.

"We appreciate the recent difficulties faced by Best Western and the tourist industry. However, Best Western is bold enough to recognise that it is only with determination and confidence that one can overcome problems and be successful."

Updated: 09:47 Tuesday, April 23, 2002