Hotel-mall trend growing in the GCC

In a growing trend emerging out of the Middle East, hotel developers are partnering with major shopping centers to build properties inside sprawling retail spaces, points out a wide-sweeping trend report released out of the World Travel Market in London this week.

After hours of pounding the shiny marbled halls of shopping meccas in Dubai, visitors no longer need to worry about hailing a cab to get to their hotel, as their room is just a few stores or floors away.

Existing ‘shopping hotels’ or hotel-malls include The Sheraton Dubai Mall and the The Address Dubai Mall, both of which are directly connected to the largest mall in the United Arab Emirates, The Dubai Mall. The Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates also provides lobby access to the Mall of the Emirates.

One of the most highly anticipated hotel-mall openings for 2014, the Yas Mall — the second largest shopping center in the UAE — will also become home to seven hotels including the Viceroy Hotel.

It’s one of 10 major shopping malls currently under development across the Middle East, notably in the UAE, Qatar, Lebanon and Egypt, the report says, in regions where shopping could be described as a national sport and whole festivals are organized around shopping.