Business & Money | Thursday 9 April, 2015 12:35 am |

After more than a decade operating hotels in the Middle East, leading Asian hospitality group Dusit International further solidifies its presence in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) by entering into a joint venture hotel management agreement with a local partner in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Dusit International and regional hoteliers Dyar Hotels and Resorts recently held a signing ceremony to formally establish a joint venture hospitality management company. Dyar has over 30 years of experience owning and operating hotels throughout the GCC and their local knowledge and expertise, coupled with Dusit’s international experience accumulated over 65 years, will offer truly distinctive products managed in a Shariah compliant manner to the growing Middle Eastern hospitality market.
The new company is already off to a solid start, with three projects confirmed in the pipeline. One will be located in Jeddah under the Dusit Thani label, the company’s original hotel brand most well known for providing gracious hospitality to guests worldwide. The other two projects, to be located in both Jeddah and Doha, will come under the company’s chic and contemporary “next generation” dusitD2 brand, whose newest hotel recently celebrated its Grand Opening in Nairobi, Kenya.

A further five properties are currently under negotiation in the Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah, which together form the largest tourism market within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In 2014 alone, the Holy Cities collectively welcomed 18 million visitors and this number is expected to surge to 23 million by 2020. This exceptional market is amply catered for by Dyar’s sister company Nebras for Tourism Development, an established, full-package inbound travel operator, affiliated with over 60 agents from the Far East, Africa, Australia, Europe and the Middle East It is also one of only 48 companies authorised by the Ministry of Hajj to issue Religious Tourism visas.
Outbound tourism from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is also significant. Nearly 30% of yearly arrivals to Dubai, where Dusit has been operating for over 14 years, hail from Saudi Arabia—over 1.5 million travellers.