Nickelodean and Marriott to Open Themed Hotels

Nickelodeon has joined forces with hotel group Marriott to create 20 themed hotels carrying the Viacom children's channel's brand.

In what is believed to be a first for children's television, the Nickelodeon branded hotels will be built in 20 destinations around the world, including the UK, the Caribbean, Australia and the Middle East.

The first is expected to be built in San Diego, America and will open before 2010.

The hotels, called Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott, will be branded on the outside and will cater for families with features including children's activity areas.

A special feature of each resort will be state-of-the-art pools and water features, plus live entertainment programs featuring popular costumed Nickelodeon characters like Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants.

There will be a fully-equipped theater stage called Studio Nick, which will be the center-piece for each resorts' live entertainment productions.

Hotels will also have a NickToons Cafe as well as a Nick Pix photo studio and Nick.com Cyberzone, where kids and families can safely surf Nick.com and Nickjr.com content online.

The project is backed by Miller Global Properties, which will initially provide $300m (£152m) of development equity capital in exchange for rights to develop the resorts in some countries.

Nickelodeon, which won the Bafta children's channel of the year in the UK, has 35 pay-TV channels reaching approximately more than 200 million households in 135 countries.

A subsidiary of Viacom, it is expanding into new markets and now claims to be available in more homes worldwide than any other children's channel.

Exclusive Nick content and programming can also be seen via its network of 10 global mobile channels, seven broadband services and 33 websites.

The president of Nickelodeon and MTVN kids and family group, Cyma Zarghami, said: "This partnership with Marriott to bring the Nickelodeon experience to families all over the world comes at the perfect time, as the first generation of kids who grew up with our brand now have come of age and are having families of their own.

"Marriott knows hotels and business and leisure travelers, and no one knows kids and families like Nickelodeon. We know this will be a great combination, and it signals the beginning of a new era for the Nickelodeon brand."