One of Jumeirah Group’s “big priorities” is expansion within the GCC, with “deep discussions” currently underway with partners in Saudi Arabia, the company’s president and group CEO Gerald Lawless told HotelierMiddleEast.com.
Lawless was speaking ahead of the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference, being held at Madinat Jumeirah on May 4-5, an event at which Jumeirah Group has previously made development announcements.
“One of our big priorities in addition to development within the UAE, and particularly Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is also that we are in deep discussion with a number of parties — so nothing has been signed yet hence the reason that we haven’t announced anything — but we are in discussion with a number of parties in Saudi Arabia and we are very keen to broaden the footprint of Jumeirah within our home region,” said Lawless.
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Back in January, Lawless revealed ambitions to finalise projects in the Kingdom.
“Our big focus is on a number of contracts in Saudi Arabia in 2014. We have potential there and we look forward to finalising some negotiations that are currently under way,” he said.
Speaking to HotelierMiddleEast.com last week, he also revealed that he “certainly” expected there to be more Jumeirah hotels announced in Dubai in the coming years.
“Dubai has been awarded the World Expo 2020 and we are going to have to build an awful lot of hotels between now and 2020, so it’s a beautiful challenge to have and it’s the kind of challenge we need but certainly we have to, as they say, hit the ground running to make sure we deliver on that and I think an awful lot of the talk around AHIC this year was focused on Dubai itself,” commented Lawless.
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