This week, the HFTP and the HFTP Dubai chapter successfully hosted an event at the Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah on September 23. The gathering brought together 87 hospitality leaders from across Dubai’s leading hotel brands, reinforcing HFTP’s commitment to knowledge-sharing and professional development within the hospitality finance and technology community.
Aman Group, which operates some of the world’s most expensive hotels, secured a $360 million investment from a group including a United Arab Emirates wealth fund and an investment firm backed by an influential member of that nation’s royal family.
Prime office rents in Riyadh have growth by 13% over the last 12-months, fuelled in part by the looming Regional HQ Program deadline, which goes into effect in January 2024, according to global real estate consultancy, Knight Frank’s Summer 2023 Saudi Commercial Market Review.
In a buoyant message to a webinar audience of some 300 hotel operators, investors and owners, held 1 September 2020, Israel's Minister of Tourism was confident the country's hotel sector would make a full recovery post-COVID, because historically the country had done so before.
The Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development (KFED) will be showcasing its small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food and beverage and hospitality sectors which comprise 18 per cent of the fund's projects at the upcoming SIAL Middle East 2018.The event will run from December 10 to 12, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, in Abu Dhabi, UAE.The fund's participation in SIAL Middle East 2018 complements the fund's ongoing efforts to support entrepreneurs and to promote a culture of entrepreneurship by supporting them in exploring new markets, expanding business horizons, promoting their products and services, and by developing their businesses in line with the Abu Dhabi Government Accelerator's Program 'Tomorrow 21,' launched by HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to build a sustainable, knowledge-based economy, to motivate business and investment, and to develop the society and a culture of innovation.
Emirati billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor told Bloomberg that he is currently deciding whether to build or acquire between seven and ten schools as well as a hospital.
Under the theme of ‘Focus on the Future’, the Saudi Arabia Hotel Investment Conference (SHIC) will present industry insights into how to capitalize on the multitude of hospitality investment opportunities arising in the Kingdom.
The global megatrends are set to have a profound and disruptive effect on the Middle East travel and tourism industry, says a new PwC report. According to PwC, the five global megatrends that are widely believed to be shaping the future of our world are: demographic shifts and social change, a shift in global economic power, accelerating urbanisation, climate change and resource scarcity, and the rise of technology.
STR's preliminary February 2017 data for Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, indicates significant growth driven by rate increases. Based on daily data from February, Abu Dhabi reported the following in year-over-year comparisons:
Building on the expertise of planning and producing the world's largest hospitality technology show, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), producers of Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®), will host its inaugural HITEC Dubai from November 14–15, 2017 at the Conrad Dubai in Dubai, UAE – the center of the fast-developing markets of Asia and The Middle East. Produced in partnership with Naseba, HFTP's HITEC Dubai will serve as the association's third, and final, HITEC of 2017.
A recently published white paper penned by TFG Asset Management revealed employee turnover in the UAE's hospitality industry measures approximately 25% - 30% per annum, which is a significant figure that can mainly be attributed to deteriorating staff loyalty. The research addresses the main motivations behind staff's intent to leave, creates a hypothetical scenario to measure the financial impacts, and crafts effective strategies to combat this alarming issue. The following article discusses the potential financial impact of a 30% voluntary staff turnover.
Yooz, the cloud service that lets businesses streamline their accounts payable (AP) workflow, announced today that Aimbridge Hospitality, one of the nation's leading independent hotel investment and management firms, has selected Yooz to faster and more efficiently capture and process all travel and expense (T&E) documents throughout its multi-brand, multi-location organization.
Jumeirah Group ('Jumeirah'), the global luxury hotel company and a member of Dubai Holding, announced today that it has successfully raised a US$1.4 billion unsecured syndicated loan priced at 2.75% above LIBOR due 2019. The facility was lead arranged by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC, Mashreq and Standard Chartered. Jumeirah Group was advised by Rothschild on the transaction. The loan will be used for expansion plans as Jumeirah continues to grow in the years ahead as well as for general corporate purposes, at the parent level, for Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group.Gerald Lawless, President and Group Chief Executive Officer, Jumeirah Group said; "The pricing we have been able to achieve for this syndicated loan is a testament to the Company's financial strength and future prospects. This financing will support our focus on driving profitable revenues from the existing portfolio while giving us the headroom to continue our local and international expansion. This is the first time we have raised funds through a syndicated loan and we are pleased to be supported by the highest calibre of international and local banks."Year to date September 2013, average occupancy in Jumeirah's portfolio of hotels has increased by 8% globally, compared to the same period in 2012. In the same period the revenue per available room, an industry standard for measuring performance, rose by 15%. The performance data is based on hotels that had more than 18 months of operations under the Jumeirah brand.
Horwath HTL, the world's oldest and largest hospitality consulting firm is sponsoring the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in Dubai, the premier event for the Hospitality Industry in the Region. Horwath HTL have been sponsoring the event since its inception, and the event now in its 8th year is being held at the prestigious Madinat Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai.
IFA Hotels & Resorts, through its asset management subsidiary company, IFA Hotel Investments (IFA HI), announced today that it has secured financing of US$115 million for its Fairmont Palm Jumeirah hotel project structured and arranged by Standard Chartered Bank. The agreement, which speaks to reemerging confidence in the Dubai real estate development sector, will allow IFA Hotels & Resorts to expedite the project's completion to Q1 2012.
Egypt is currently witnessing an unparalleled boom in tourism which is propelling this historic nation to the forefront of the developing tourism industry. Recent statistics on Euromonitor International indicate that, in the past four years, tourism revenue has increased by 40%. In order to further increase national income from tourism, the country has directed part of the foreign investment capital to construct new hotels to accommodate the growing number of tourists. This trend is the driving force for IQPC's Hotel Design and Construction Egypt which will take place from 12 - 15 December 2010.
Egyptian Resorts Co., the second- biggest publicly traded Red Sea resort developer, expects a recovery in tourism to boost sales of land in its Sahl Hasheesh project in 2011, Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Kamel said. “We’re basing our optimism on sales in 2011 on more hospitality business,” Kamel, 31, said in an interview at his office in Cairo yesterday. “What we are seeing is despite the sentiment on the residential market is that hospitality is not suffering as much. Tourism figures speak for themselves.”
The chairman of Abu Dhabi-based Rotana Hotel Management said he had agreed to buy a 22 percent stake in the company from a private equity fund of Dubai's Shuaa Capital .
The programme for the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference 2010, taking place from 1 – 3 May 2010, was today announced. The Conference will be held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and CEO of Emirates Airlines.
Capital for hotel owners and developers could be choked off even further if Dubai World is unsuccessful in restructuring its massive debt, some industry experts say.Lenders and representatives of government-controlled Dubai World are currently meeting to discuss modifying some US$26 billion of the company’s total US$60 billion of debt in a process that could take months. A failure to do so could further delay the flow of capital to hotel owners and developers, said Rich Conti, president of The Plasencia Group, an asset management and consulting company in Tampa, Florida.