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March 19- SHUAA Saudi Hospitality Fund I has decided to invest in a $133 million hotel development project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, it was learnt on Thursday. The fund will purchase land and build a 35-storey luxury hotel on the Jeddah Corniche, overlooking the Red Sea. The hotel will comprise 250 rooms and 150 apartments. The fund is a real-estate development and hospitality fund managed by SHUAA Capital…
March 18- The Mövenpick Resort & Residence Aqaba and Mövenpick Resort Tala Bay are the first two hotels in Jordan to be awarded the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification for its food safety management programme. The certification is a seven-step food safety management system that takes into account various physical, chemical and biological hazards with regard to food and how to prevent…
March 18- Emerald Palace Group, a residential and tourism project developer, has delivered 100 units to owners at Kempinski Hotel Residences Palm Jumeirah project, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. Work on the project began in 2007 and includes 244 units, such as suites, residences, penthouses and royal villas. Handovers to customers began in January this year and are expected to reach completion…
March 18- Ominvest, a property development company in Oman, is planning to build a $1 billion tourism resort in Salalah, the company's chairman said on Wednesday. "The integrated tourist complex will have four hotels and housing units which will be offered for sale to both local and international investors,” said Hani Al Zubair, the chairman, while talking to journalists at an investment forum. Construction…
March 18- Kempinski Residences & Suites Doha, the first property in Qatar, will open in April 2010, according to a press release issued by the company on Thursday. The building is said to be the tallest on Qatar’s skyline and has 62 floors with 370 fully furnished apartments and suites. The highest level of the building will be duplex Sky Villas that consist of six bedrooms each. "This property will be unlike…
March 17- Abu Dhabi National Hotel’s (ADNH) core lodging performance was weak last year but profits were lifted by catering operations. ADNH said its profits last year were 48 percent higher at Dh432.9 million (US$117.8). ADNH, which owns hotels in Abu Dhabi including Le Meridian and Hilton, also operates a catering division through a joint venture with the Compass Group of the UK, and owns and manages Al Ghazal…
March 17- Dubai based Proleads research shows that 48 new hotels with 14,178 rooms are expected to open in the GCC in 2010. The estimated cost of the new hotels is $7.3 billion (Dh26.79bn). A panel of industry experts will discuss ways for the hospitality industry to deal with the global economic downturn at the Hotel Show, which runs from May 18th until May 20th at the Dubai World Trade Center.…
The number of new hotels being added to the development pipeline of the Middle East and Africa region slowed down considerably last month, revealed data from STR Global, a research company. There are about 457 hotels in the development pipeline and just one more was added last month. According to the company’s February report, 124,142 rooms were in development while in January, 14 new hotels were added to the…
Over 70 percent of hotel suppliers have yet to receive the money owed to them by hotel companies for their services, it was learnt via the findings of a recently conducted survey. From a sample of 34, 70.4 per cent respondents said the hotels owed them money, revealed the Hotelier Middle East Supplier Survey. 22.9 per cent of the respondents said that the money owed to their companies is the biggest hurdle for…
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment firm, Kingdom Holding Company, has offered to buy the remaining shares in Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI) for $843 million. Kingdom Holding has offered $5 a share for a 44 per cent stake in KHI. The offer has already been approved by a committee at the Kingdom Hotel. “The offer allows our minority shareholders the opportunity to crystallise cash value…
March 15- Dubai hotel owners and operators are reconsidering the terms of investments proposed and the payback period allocated to them, it was learnt on Sunday. In fact, said analysts, some operators are even recalculating the revenues expected from the projects A classic example of this is one hotel owner in Dubai who renegotiated the expected revenue from the project: "In this particular case, the owner was…
March 15- Rotana, hotel management company in the Middle East and North Africa, is set to open the Amwaj Rotana Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, on May 15 this year. Omer Z. Kaddouri, Senior Vice President UAE, Rotana, while talking about the launch, said: "The essence of Rotana is the diversity in its products and for us to be managing this newest property, which is the company’s first property with beach access in…
March 14- Whitbread Plc (WTB.LN), the UK based budget lodging chain, bought out its Indian joint venture partner Emaar MGF. Nearly three years ago the two companies partnered to build 80 Premier Inn hotels over a ten year period in India. The deal involved an investment of $600 million. Emaar MGF is a joint venture between Dubai’s Emaar Properties and India’s MGF Development Ltd. A Premier Inn India official…
March 14- Al Areen Holding Company hit back at Bahrain’s Banyan Tree operators on Saturday, in response to Banyan Tree’s petition to wind-up Al Areen Desert Spa and Resorts. Al Areen released a statement saying it will not tolerate any breach of contract by Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts to operate the desert resort property.” Luxury Resorts operator Banyan Tree petition filed the petition in order to recover…
March 13- Meydan, the world’s first trackside hotel, was opened this month. The hotel is a significant component of Meydan Grandstand and Racecourse, which is the official venue of the world’s richest horse racing event, Dubai World Cup. The hotel has 285 rooms and offers an unobstructed view of the racecourse because of the private balconies in each suite. Besides that, guests can enjoy the races from the…
March 13- Meydan, the world’s first trackside hotel, was opened this month. The hotel is a significant component of Meydan Grandstand and Racecourse, which is the official venue of the world’s richest horse racing event, Dubai World Cup. The hotel has 285 rooms and offers an unobstructed view of the racecourse because of the private balconies in each suite. Besides that, guests can enjoy the races from the…
March 12- Acclaimed luxury resorts operator, Banyan Tree is seeking legal action against Al-Areen Desert Spa and Resorts in Bahrain over an unpaid bill of $1 million. Banyan Tree has filed a petition for the winding up of operations of Al Areen in a bid to recover $1.12 million. “It is common knowledge that the financial crisis has impacted several entities in the Middle East; to a certain degree, it has…
March 12- The InterContinental Hotels Group in Dubai hopes to hire about 30,000 people in the 46 hotels that it aims to open in the Middle East and Africa in the next three years. "We're adding at least 50 per cent to our portfolio in the next three years, and it doesn't matter whether you're talking about hotels, the number of employees we need or the number of rooms," said John Bamsey, the InterContinental's…
