Dubai reaches 100,000-room milestone
Following the opening of Westin Dubai, Al Habtoor city, Dubai has reached a historical milestone of 100,000 rooms across its hotel and hotel apartment inventory. Key players in the tourism industry shared their views on the achievement.
For the hotel sector, high demand from international travellers, and the consequent growth in tourism volumes, has been the cornerstone of fostering continued investment in supply enhancement, which has seen us cross this historic 100,000-room threshold. This has been a journey undertaken collaboratively and achieved through the enduring strength of our public and private partnerships that underscore Dubai’s maturing prominence on the world stage. The hotel and hospitality sector continues to share strong interdependencies and complementarities with the growth of tourism, aviation, infrastructure and other destination proposition enhancements, as it has done historically. The concerted efforts of Dubai Government to continually evolve the emirate’s transport and logistics infrastructure via committed investments for capacity expansion through to 2020, coupled with Dubai Tourism’s enablement of various tourism assets, ranging from theme parks and cultural districts to specialised event venues and entertainment offerings, have laid stable foundations to systematically grow visitation volumes to the city.
Achieving the 100,000-room milestone underlines the remarkable growth of Dubai’s hospitality sector led by the strategic directives and vision of His Highness. Tourism and hospitality are core contributors to the city’s economy, which gain strength from a robust aviation infrastructure and Dubai’s reputation as a global leisure and business hub. We see significant growth prospects for the industry, and the availability of world-class rooms – from ultra-luxury to midscale – will further add to the appeal of Dubai as a preferred destination for visitors from around the world.
We are proud that the opening of The Westin Dubai, Al Habtoor City has helped Dubai achieve its 100,000 rooms milestone. Dubai is now home to 30 of our properties across the world’s most-renowned brands, making Marriott International the largest hotel operator in the city. With plans to nearly double our presence in this market in the next five years, Marriott International is committed to supporting the vision of Dubai, led by His Highness to strengthen Dubai’s position as a leading destination for global travel.
We are exceptionally proud of the contribution Jumeirah Group makes to the development of Dubai as a world-class hospitality and tourism destination. In December, Jumeirah Al Naseem will open with 430 rooms adding to our existing portfolio of luxury properties at Madinat Jumeirah, that includes Jumeirah Al Qasr, Jumeirah Mina A’Salam, Jumeirah Dar Al Masyaf. We currently operate nine properties in Dubai with an inventory of 3208 hotel rooms, suites and villas.
We have been welcoming guests to Dubai for over 15 years, and in this time have seen the emirate’s hospitality industry and our presence grow from strength to strength. Today we have 10 hotels in Dubai and expect to double this number by 2020 as we grow and evolve our portfolio to suite increasingly diverse guest needs. We have confidence in Dubai’s longevity as a thriving and exciting place for any hotelier to operate, and we continue to work alongside our investor partners to solidify the emirate’s position as a leading global destination.
Al Habtoor Group continues to grow in unison with the economy of Dubai. Our vision is in line with the Government. We have seven quality hotels in the city contributing significantly to the hospitality sector. Addition of The Westin Dubai – Al Habtoor City is another 1,004 superior rooms to Dubai. It is the largest Westin in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Our hospitality portfolio in Dubai is unique and draws people to the city, offering travellers with a multitude of luxury choices.