New ownership of the Royal International Hotel near Tonga's Fua'amotu International Airport was announced by the Managing Director of the Scenic Hotel Group, Brendan Taylor in Tonga on 8 August.

The new ownership is a joint venture between two New Zealand companies, the Commercial Factors Ltd and the Scenic Hotel Group and the Royal International Hotel will soon be the network's 18th hotel..

Brendon said that they had been working on the project during the past four years and their tender for the property was accepted recently.

He said the joint venture group was also interested in acquiring the International Dateline Hotel to be part of the Scenic network of hotels.

Sakopo Lolohea, the Chief Executive Officer said that the taking of the Royal International Hotel by the New Zealand joint venture groups was the second best thing that had ever happened to the Tongan Tourism Industry since the opening of the International Dateline Hotel in 1967.

Ross Brijevich, the Manager of the Royal International Hotel said that the tender of the two New Zealand companies for the property was accepted on May 10, and the next stage of their taking ownership of the property would be the assigning of the lease of the property to the new owner.

"Once that is done then we will move on to acquiring of business licenses and the repairing of the property," said Ross who did not want to put any figures on property that they are acquiring.

He has taken over the running of the hotel and said that out of the 78 rooms 64 are in good condition.

The construction of the Royal International Hotel began on 7 April 1992, as a venture of a Chinese businessman Sam Wong, and after a long saga, it was eventually opened for business by King George V on October 9 2007.