Hilton Worldwide Middle East & Africa has announced it has become the “fastest-growing hotel developer in Saudi Arabia” with a programme to open 14 hotels and almost 7000 rooms in KSA in the next two years.
The ambitious expansion strategy represents over *17% of the entire KSA pipeline and almost *26% of the rooms to be developed across the Kingdom. The programme also makes up more than one third of Hilton Worldwide’s total pipeline for MEA, currently the largest in the region at 40 properties.
Rudi Jagersbacher, president, Hilton Worldwide, Middle East & Africa said Saudi Arabia was “a key strategic market for us”.
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“As a long-standing hotel operator in the Kingdom, we understand the potential of the country’s tourism market and our plans have been developed in line with the expected city-based expansion as well as to support the fledgling leisure and tourism industry,” he asserted.
Hilton Worldwide has been in KSA for 17 years and the company’s current portfolio is spread across the four cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Medina and Makkah with future growth to include properties in the Eastern Province areas of Al Jubail and Al Khobar. Six of the 14 pipeline hotels will be developed in Makkah, as part of the Jabal Omar development, and will help meet the increasing demand from the religious tourism sector.
Once all pipeline properties are open, all five Hilton Worldwide brands in MEA – Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn - will be represented and Saudi will be the only country in Middle East & Africa to have such cross-brand presence.
Jagersbacher added: “It is a mark of Hilton Worldwide’s longevity and standing in the local community that investors will often choose us above other hotel companies to take the first step into this burgeoning hospitality industry. We, in turn, benefit from their expert knowledge of the local market and operations.”
*Data source: STR Global, Pipeline Summary – Total, Middle East & Africa, published 31 March 2012
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