The First Group to launch four upscale hotels

The First Group (TFG) is set to open four new upscale hotels in Dubai by 2020, with an aim to capitalise on the growing mid-market tourist profile.

The properties include: Millennium Place Business Bay, Millennium Place JVT Dubai, Ramada Plaza JVC and The One Dubai Marina, all of which will open ahead of the Expo.

This will expand The First Group’s hotel portfolio to five properties. The firm’s first hotel, Wyndham Dubai Marina, opened in February 2016.

TFG Asset Management head Mariano Faz said: "To achieve its target of 20 million visitors by 2020, Dubai is diversifying its tourism offering and attracting new markets, which has seen a new guest profile emerge: value-conscious families and business travellers who demand the luxury accommodation for which the city is known, but at an affordable price."

Faz said that the Wyndham Dubai Marina, which welcomed more than 36,000 guests in its first year of operation, proved the upscale hotel model met new market demand.

In 2016, Dubai’s hotel inventory reached 102,845 rooms across 681 establishments, with 32% in the five-star category (33,122 rooms) and 23% in the four-star category (22,990 rooms), Dubai Tourism figures reveal.

To accommodate the 20 million visitors expected by 2020, Dubai requires at least 150,000 rooms. The emirate is on target to reach 134,000 rooms by the end of 2018, Dubai Tourism director general Helal Almarri recently revealed.

He added that there was a "significant boost in the number of properties in the three- and four-star range" in 2016, with capacity growing by 24% and 8% respectively as “several stylish and boutique new entrants carved a niche positioning for themselves in the market”.

However, more mid-scale and upscale room stock is needed by 2020 if current visitor demand trends continue, said Faz.