It's harder than ever to open a new luxury hotel. Interest rates and construction costs are high, so even the projects that do move ahead take longer than expected to finish.
05.12.2023 - 06:29 / skift.com / Sean Oneill / Rocco Forte
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has acquired a significant minority stake in Rocco Forte Hotels, the luxury hotel operator said Monday.
Saudi Arabia bought the full equity stake of the Italian entity CDPE Investimenti. The Forte family retains its majority ownership.
The proposed deal would value the 14-hotel portfolio at $1.8 billion (£1.4 billion, including debt).
The group generated EBITDA of approximately $81 million in its financial year through April, according to its UK filings, on revenues of about $370 million.
This move builds on Rocco Forte’s growth trajectory. Saudi Arabia’s fund pledges to also invest “tens of millions” of dollars to roughly double the size of the hotel portfolio over the next five years.
The group has already announced plans to open three more hotels in the next two years.
The investment reflects the fund’s focus on international hospitality and tourism industries as a strategic diversification away from fossil fuels.
Rocco Forte Hotels was established in 1996 by Sir Rocco Forte and Olga Polizzi. Forte will stay as executive chairman, and Olga Polizzi will stay as deputy chairman. The Financial Times first reported the news.
“[Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund] is an excellent partner for us going forward,” Sir Rocco Forte said in a statement. “We have established an extremely good relationship during the course of our negotiations. They share the same vision for the brand and the future strategy of the group with the same ambition to take a long-term view.”
What am I looking at? The performance of hotels and short-term rental sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets, including international and regional hotel brands, hotel REITs, hotel management companies, alternative accommodations, and timeshares.
The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more hotels and short-term rental financial sector performance.
Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.
It's harder than ever to open a new luxury hotel. Interest rates and construction costs are high, so even the projects that do move ahead take longer than expected to finish.
When you think of a cruise vacation, you probably imagine sailing the tropical waters of the Caribbean, or navigating around the Greek islands. Your brain likely isn’t conjuring images of the sandswept deserts of Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia strives to make itself more attractive for international tourism — making the process of getting a visa very easy, and establishing tourism-specific destinations like NEOM and AlUla. And thanks to its efforts, it’s become a desirable new destination for Red Sea cruises. Since the first cruise to Saudi Arabia in January 2022, sailings to the kingdom have multiplied. Right now Jeddah is the country’s main cruise port, though as tourism development continues throughout the region, more ports are likely to open. Whether you’re a cruise enthusiast or a newbie, now’s the time to consider a Saudi Arabia cruise.
Tourism leaders from around the world will join together in Saudi Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, for 2023’s United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) World Tourism Day on September 27 and 28. Global tourism ministers and others in the industry will participate in events to connect and collaborate. The location of this year’s event shows how far tourism has come in the few short years since Saudi Arabia opened to tourists in 2019.
NEOM is central to Saudi Arabia’s push to encourage tourism and emerge as one of the world’s leading vacation destinations. Al’Ula and mega-projects inside of NEOM such as The Line and a new island destination called Sindalah have been the biggest locations to make headlines lately, but there are other moving pieces equally worthy of getting excited about. Take, for example, Leyja, a mountainous region within NEOM slated to be developed as a major tourism hub with three new futuristic hotels built right into the mountains.
At first, the idea of building an entire city in the shape of a straight line might sound puzzling. After all, wouldn’t it take that much longer to get from one end to the other? Would the traffic going from end to end be terrible? It turns out that the straight line model is actually based on efficiency of transportation, and when done right, it can be an incredible advantage to other layouts. That’s the goal with “The Line,” Saudi Arabia’s trillion-dollar futuristic city that’s an ambitious feat of engineering. The planned 105-mile long city in NEOM, in the northwest section of the country, is slated to cut across the desert in a straight line, hold nine million people, and serve as an almost utopian example of what cities could look like.
Since opening to tourists in 2019, Saudi Arabia has quickly become a world leader in travel. The country was elected as the Chair of the United Nations World Tourism Organization in 2023, and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism aims to welcome 100 million tourist visits by 2023. Such rapid growth takes massive investment — something Saudi Arabia has already proven to be more than willing to do successfully. With increased cruises bringing passengers to Saudi Arabia and a manageable visa application process, it’s hard to imagine another country more poised to dominate the global tourism market in upcoming years.
In 2019, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia officially opened its doors to international travelers, issuing tourist visas for the first time in history. Previously, only those traveling to Saudi Arabia for work or Muslim pilgrims were permitted to enter the country. Today, citizens of 57 nations, including the United States, can obtain an eVisa to travel to Saudi Arabia — and the application process is simple, fast, and relatively cheap.
Located in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, Riyadh, the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia, stands as a testament to the region’s rich tapestry of culture, history, and modernity.
The Iranian government announced on Thursday it’s removing visa requirements for visitors from 33 countries, including Saudi Arabia — with which Iran has strained relationship over recent years.
Saudi Arabia is truly leaving no stone unturned in its pursuit to become a tourism superpower. The kingdom’s latest move is to create the “Dan Company”, an organization under the sovereign wealth fund designed to promote and develop agritourism and eco-tourism.
When choosing a hotel for your December vacation, “sterile” and “corporate” simply won’t do. Winter is upon us. Christmastime is here. The holiday spirit should ooze through every check-in kiosk, ice machine and fitness center―the more, the merrier.
Iran and Saudi Arabia will start formal talks next week to resume direct scheduled flights between Tehran and Riyadh and other cities, an Iranian official told the state-affiliated news agency ILNA on Sunday.