May 7 – India’s Oberoi Hotels and Resorts is planning to open three hotels in the UAE by 2013, with the first, a 220 room property, to open in Business Bay in 2011. Two additional hotels will open and be operational by 2013. “Our first hotel in the UAE will be the business hotel in Dubai, which should open in one and a half years” said Liam Lambert, President of Oberoi Hotels and Resorts. He said after that two more are planned for Abu Dhabi, a 200 room downtown property and a 120 room luxury beach-front hotel.
Oberoi already has luxury properties in Saudi Arabia and wants to expand further in the region and is planning hotels for Oman and Morocco. Lambert said there have been construction delays on its Abu Dhabi and Oman properties because of financing. “The hotels were originally scheduled to open by late 2011, but now we are targeting late 2012 or mid-2013.”