DUBAI HOTELS tips

Jumeirah Group has appointed a chief brand officer to “spearhead the evolution of the brand,” the luxury Dubai hotel chain said Thursday.

The company behind Dubai’s pair of Atlantis resorts has opened its first hotel intended purely for the fitness crowd. Kerzner’s new Siro hotel is located alongside the group’s latest One&Only hotel, both located in a skyscraper complex called One Za’abeel.

Five hotels under Dubai’s home-grown company Emaar Hospitality have been rebranded in one swoop this week. Properties in prestige locations such as The Dubai Mall (the world’s biggest mall) and Dubai Marina have been rebranded as Kempinski and Marriott respectively. Abu Dhabi National Hotels (ADNH) owns the properties and says the move to strip Emaar branding was a “strategic business decision.”

Dubai’s home-grown hotel group FIVE is looking at potentially expanding beyond the emirate into the world’s largest hospitality markets. This includes a potential resort in party haven Las Vegas and in the conservative Gulf kingdom Saudi Arabia.

The construction firm behind the MGM Cotai casino resort in Macau has been awarded the contract to build “The Island” in Dubai. First reported by MEED, the $1.2 billion contract is the most valuable construction deal in Dubai in the past six years.

IHG is in talks to operate all three hotels on a man-made island that’s part of Dubai’s long-delayed tourism development: The Heart of Europe.

Size matters in Dubai, home to the world’s tallest building, the largest water park, and just because it can, the world’s largest “frame.” Already chief among the other six emirates in hotel development, Dubai is charging ahead with yet more rooms.