Rotana Hotels, based in Abu Dhabi, sees great potential for development of the tourism sector in Iraq as the countries security improves. Rotana has signed up to manage two five star hotels in Iraq over the past two years. One hotel will be in the heavily guarded International Green Zone and the other in Erbil, the Kurdistan region in the north.
President and Chief Executive of the hotel, Mr. El Zyr, said “The opportunity arose when we were approached to manage two new five star projects.” He said they are expanding into Iraq as part of their overall strategy to become the dominant hotel management company in the Middle East. He said they will focus mainly on religious and business tourism, because the leisure side will take time to develop. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit Najaf and Karbala each year and Baghdad is a perfect place for them to stay because of the current supply in these cities.
