Sofitel has opened a luxury property in the new Moroccan resort of Essaouira Mogador on the country’s Atlantic coast.

The Mogador resort is set in some 600 hectares of forest along 4 kilometers of coast line, boasting a 36-hole Gary Player golf course and a number of exclusive villas.

The villas are all designed to be eco-friendly thanks to features such as energy-efficient lighting and water recycling systems.

Marriott‘s new Autograph brand is to appear in Europe for the first time within months, the firm said March 7.

Autograph, an upscale brand which brings together independent hotels and resorts under the Marriott name, will appear first in Spain, where the company plans to add four properties currently owned by AC Hotels into the exclusive group.

The hotels include the historic AC Santo Mauro and AC Palacio del Retiro buildings in Madrid, which have been converted from houses into five-star properties.

Mondrian SoHo, Morgans Hotel Group’s third Mondrian and debut hotel property in downtown Manhattan, officially opened this week.

Morgans selected Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, the visionary behind the re-imagined Mondrian Los Angeles, to create Mondrian SoHo in collaboration with the company’s renowned in-house design team.

Noriega-Ortiz’s design for the hotel draws inspiration from Jean Coucteau’s 1946 romantic French fantasy film “La Belle et la Bête.”

International hotel chain InterContinental has chosen Phuket, Thailand to launch as the first resort destination for its Hotel Indigo chain.

Hotel Indigo, a ’boutique’ style brand which aims for individuality with its properties, operates 38 hotels around the world, with the majority in big cities.

The February 24 announcement of its entry into Phuket, one of Thailand’s most popular destinations for foreign tourists, is a clear sign that it believes it can appeal to all vacationers, not just those on a city break.

Spain is still Europe’s most popular place to stay, according to figures released February 28 by the European Union.

In total, 268 million nights were spent in Spain’s hotels by travelers last year, a rise of 6.4 percent on 2009′s figures.

The second most popular place to lay your head was Italy with 245 million nights spent in 2010, although this was a slight fall on 2009′s figures.

Shangri-La has debuted a new luxury five star brand with the opening of a new hotel in Shanghai February 18.

Kerry Hotels is a new five-star contemporary brand from Shangri-La which provides “a seamless link between business, entertainment and recreation.”

The new Shanghai Pudong property offers 574 guestrooms decked out with the latest technology such as DVD players, Nespresso machines, iPod docking stations and 40-inch televisions.