Minor Signs 500-Room Avani Hotel in Dubai

Thailand's Minor Hotel Group (MHG) has entered into a strategic partnership with Nakheel to co-invest and develop a 500-key Avani hotel in Dubai, to open in 2018. The Avani Deira Dubai Hotel will be located in Deira Islands, a unique waterfront entertainment, tourist and residential destination being developed in alignment with Dubai Vision 2020.

Comprising four islands situated adjacent to Dubai's Deira district, with a total area of over 15.3 square kilometres, Deira Islands, master developed by Nakheel, will feature a variety of beachfront resorts, hotels and residential communities, a shopping mall, a waterfront night market and an amphitheatre able to accommodate up to 30,000 people.

The Avani hotel will be close to Dubai International Airport, with views of the Dubai skyline and Persian Gulf.

Avani was launched by Minor Hotel Group in 2011 and currently has 13 properties in operation in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Seychelles, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Zambia, with a pipeline of further openings.

Dillip Rajakarier, CEO Minor Hotel Group, said, "We are really excited to announce the launch of our Avani brand in the UAE and also to be entering into a new strategic partnership with Nakheel, such a well respected partner in the region, and one that we plan to enjoy a fruitful ongoing relationship with going forward. Deira Islands is an impressive project and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to introduce Avani into the Dubai market in this new development."

MHG currently has a portfolio of nine hotels in the UAE across three of its brands – Anantara, Per Aquum and Oaks.