A staggering 54,000 hotel rooms are set to open in the UAE with the next two years set to be the busiest years for the hospitality industry in the country, a new report says.
These will be divided among 183 hotel projects, according to a hotel construction report by Tophotelprojects, prepared for The Hotel Show Dubai 2016.
The majority will open before 2020, the year Dubai hosts the Expo 2020. However, the busiest years are forecast to be 2017 (56 project openings) and 2018 (58 project openings). Hotels opening in this time include: Paramount Hotel Dubai (2017), Hard Rock Hotel Abu Dhabi (2017), Citymax Hotel Ras Al Khaimah (2017) and Marriott Dubai Jumeirah (2018).
“Paramount Hotel Dubai, expected to open by the end of 2017, will be the first ever Paramount Hotels & Resorts property as well as the operator’s UAE flagship hotel,” said Thomas van Vliet, CEO of Paramount Hotels & Resorts. “The hotel, part of a mixed use complex also housing 1,197 serviced residences, offers a luxurious experience with a Californian edge and Hollywood vibe, housing 823 guest rooms and suites, some of which are themed after Paramount Pictures movies.
“We have three more projects underway in Dubai, with a total of 1,383 keys,” he added.
W Hotels & Resorts, meanwhile, opened its first hotel in the UAE in June of this year on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road. “It has been a long-time coming, but the first W Hotel in the UAE has opened its doors. As a leading lifestyle hotel, it is fitting that W Dubai opens within a unique and first of its kind urban resort like Al Habtoor City – Starwood’s largest hospitality project in the Middle East,” says Peter Katusak-Huzsvar, General Manager of W Dubai – Al Habtoor City.
“Following the launch of W Dubai – Al Habtoor City, the brand is set to rapidly grow its portfolio in the Middle East with four new openings in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, UAE; Amman, Jordan; and Muscat, Oman,” he added.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi continue to lead in hotel construction across the UAE with a combined 155 hotel projects and 47,619 rooms in the pipeline. Other emirates with hotel construction underway include: Sharjah with 6 projects (959 rooms) and Ras Al-Khaimah with 5 projects (1,847 rooms).
Tophotelprojects will discuss the latest hotel construction trends across the UAE and the wider Middle East and Africa at the Vision Conference 2016, part of the 17th edition of The Hotel Show Dubai. Free registration for the 3-day exhibition and conference, which takes place from September 17 to 19 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, is now open at Hotelshow.com
