Of all the cities in the world that Brad Pitt could design a hotel for, he chose Dubai. The project ticks all the boxes that could be hoped for: celebrity angle, environmental credentials and a local developer.

And while hotels built with the backing of strong personalities or identities are nothing new in the region (lest we forget Armani and Versace, for example), the announcement of this hotel has now raised the bar in terms of achieving international recognition.

Type ‘Brad Pitt Dubai hotel' into Google and you get 73,000 hits, with the story covered by such publications as The Telegraph, LA Times and People - not to mention the enthusiastic response the story has generated in the local regional media.

Out of interest, if you type ‘Angelina Jolie Dubai hotel' into Google you get 56,800 hits, even though as far as we know she is yet to put pen to paper with her hotel plans.

But what is the attraction to consumers of staying in a hotel designed (in part at least) by a well known actor?

Organising celebrity endorsement of a hotel project is one that is yet to show a proven formula for long-term success.

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While some hotels are intimately associated with celebrities in the mind of consumers - it's difficult to think of New York's Hotel Chelsea without conjuring names like Jack Kerouac, Syd Vicious, Nancy Spungen, Bob Dylan and pretty much anyone Andy Warhol was friends with - it is difficult to imagine what a Brad Pitt hotel would look like, let alone what sort of person would stay there.

At least the Armani and Versace products have an established brand identity to lure consumers, but Pitt's skills as an architect are not instantly recognisable, even though he has been involved with building projects before.

Besides, it is not immediately clear how much influence he will have, as one of a panel of consultants to the project.

The press materials announcing the project are short on concrete details - "[the hotel's] precise location in Dubai is to be confirmed in the near future" - but one would imagine that an 800-room five-star hotel "which will eventually play host to the most glamourous events and award ceremonies" would be at the higher end of the scale.

It will be interesting to watch this project unfold and guage its level of success in the minds of consumers and the wider industry alike.

If it does takes off, expect to see an Oprah Winfrey Resort, or, dare I say it, a Paris Hilton Hotel coming soon to a city near you.

Chris Jackson is the senior editor of Hotelier Middle East.