Hard Rock aims to manage eight hotels in the region

Dubai: US-based Hard Rock group, which operates about 125 rock music-themed restaurants in major cities, aims to manage eight hotels in the Gulf and Egypt by 2015 as it begins an aggressive foreign expansion push.

The company is keen to develop its hotel brand outside the US as at present only two of the eight operating Hard Rock hotels are outside its home country.

"We have been pretty successful in establishing our hotel brand in the US. We are looking at both the Middle East and Asia as strategic expansion areas," chief executive officer Hamish Dodds told Gulf News.

Agreement

Hard Rock Hotels, which operates four and five-star hotels, resorts and casinos, announced last month it has signed an agreement for its first Middle East hotel in Dubai.

Dodds said the 91-storey hotel will become the second tallest building in the emirate. It will be located in the Dubai World Trade Centre area, giving it proximity to Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower. The Dubai hotel will comprise 350 guest rooms and 100 serviced apartments.

Talks with potential investors are under way for building Hard Rock brand hotels in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain and Cairo.

"That is where our primary focus at the moment is," Dodds said, adding that the Sharm Al Shaikh resort and Hurghada in Egypt will also be considered later.