InFocus | Commercial Properties
The hub of premium hospitality
With investment in excess of $30 billion (about Dh110 billion) in more than 120 new multiple hotel projects across the Arabian Gulf and Egypt, suppliers to the region's hospitality sector can expect unparalleled business opportunities over the next ten years.
- Gulf News Report
- Published: 23:14 July 5, 2008
- The Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. The emirate will soon have the $1 billion Capital Centre incorporating a 724-room 5-star hotel.
- Image Credit: Gulf News archive
Many hotel projects in the Middle East are opulent and grand in design.
With investment in excess of $30 billion (about Dh110 billion) in more than 120 new multiple hotel projects across the Arabian Gulf and Egypt, suppliers to the region's hospitality sector can expect unparalleled business opportunities over the next ten years, says a leading industry observer.
"The sheer scale of hotel projects across the region underlines the massive potential for new business for the suppliers to the hospitality," says Maggie Moore, Exhibition Director of The Hotel Show 2008, which took place at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre in June.
The hotels are either in the planning stage, being designed or under construction, according to the database of research company Proleads, which monitors major construction projects across the region from initial planning to completion.
It shows the UAE clearly leading the way in the region with 66 hotel projects, followed by Saudi Arabia (17), Oman (13), Qatar (10), Egypt (seven) and Bahrain (seven). The top ten multiple hotel projects in the planning, design and construction phases alone represent total investment of more than $18 billion (about Dh66 billion) (see table).
Earlier this year the Proleads database recorded a total of 185 projects planned or under construction across the entire tourism and leisure-related sector in the Arabian Gulf including hotels, resorts, sports facilities, mixed-use malls, marinas, theme parks and other related facilities worth a total of around $90 billion (about Dh330.5 billion).
"We all know that there are dramatic increases taking place in the UAE hotel sector, with the number of hotels and hotel apartments in Dubai expected to increase to 488 by 2010, up from 452 last year," said Moore.
"Meanwhile, the number of hotel rooms in Abu Dhabi is forecast to grow to 75,000 in 22 years by 2030 from 10,000 now under the emirate's development strategy. In the planning stages, for example, Abu Dhabi's $3 billion (about Dh11 billion) MGM Grand Hotel development will have over 1,200 rooms.
"Big hotel developments are taking place across the rest of the region as well. In fact, the three biggest multiple hotel projects currently under construction are all outside the UAE."
The under construction list is headed by Bahrain's Dilmunia Island development – a "medical tourism" destination incorporating three 5-star and a 4-star hotel along with hospitals and clinics for a total investment of more than $1.5 billion (about Dh5.5 billion)."
Second is Qatari Diar's $1 billion (about Dh3.67 billion) Nile corniche development in Cairo, Egypt, incorporating a 440 keys spread between hotel rooms and serviced apartments. This is only one of Qatari Diar's huge investments in the hospitality sector in Egypt with a $5 billion (about Dh18.36 billion) Hurghada Tourism City incorporating ten hotels in the planning stage. It is also investing $450 million (about Dh1.65 billion) in a tourism resort in Sharm Al Shaikh.
For sheer scale, number three in current construction – the $710 million (about Dh2.6 billion) Jabal Al-Kaaba development in Makkah, Saudi Arabia – is hard to beat. A total of nine hotels are being built with a total of 10,000 rooms.
In the design phase, another Qatar investment tops the list with Lusail's $3 billion (about Dh11 billion) Qatar Entertainment City to incorporate four 5-star hotels, each of between 300 and 400 rooms. Second is Dubailand's $1.6 billion (about Dh5.8 billion) Asia-Asia hotel, planned to be the world's largest with 6,500 rooms.
In the planning stages another major Egyptian development is the $450 million (about Dh1.6 billion) Tod Hill Hotel near Luxor with 4,500 rooms. Oman is planning two 5-star hotels each of 300 rooms on the Wave development. A family resort in Oman's Musandam is in the design phase with a projected cost of $780 million (about Dh2.86 billion).
Also in the design phase are two notable UAE projects – Abu Dhabi's $1 billion Capital Centre incorporating a 724-room 5-star hotel and a 91-floor Hard Rock Hotel as part of the Dubai World Trade Centre redevelopment.
The Hotel Show and its associated Seven Star Conference provide a future perspective on key trends and drivers shaping the travel and tourism sector in a region where the industry's share of investment in relation to gross domestic product has risen from 8.5 per cent in 2000 to a forecast 11 per cent in 2008.
The Hotel Show is the Middle East's leading supplies exhibition to the region's burgeoning hospitality and leisure sectors and this year covered nine halls and more than 17,000 square metres of exhibition space when it opened on June 8, 2008 at Dubai International Exhibition Centre.
This represents almost 20 per cent growth over last year and organisers DMG World Media Dubai revealed that more than 15,000 visitors visited the industry showcase. The show hosted more than 800 exhibitors from over 46 countries.
"The regional hospitality industry is in dynamic mode and our early projections are not only being realised but exceeded," said Moore.
– Dubai Hotel Show
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