Spain’s Riu Hotels & Resorts Group and Dubai developer Nakheel have signed a joint venture to build Riu’s first hotel in the UAE.
The 750-room development will be the largest hotel in Nakheel’s Dubai Deira Islands master development, and the first to offer 24-hour all-inclusive service.
Deira Islands is a large-scale coastal project that will feature the Deira Mall retail and entertainment complex and the Deira Islands Night Market. Altogether it will have 5,300 shops, a marina and a 30,000-capacity amphitheater.
Luis Riu and Ali Rashid Lootah
Luis Riu, chief executive of Riu Hotels & Resorts, said: “The formal signing of this partnership represents another step towards making the first RIU project in the Middle East a reality.
“Dubai is one of the great new centres of international tourism as it represents a strategic enclave on the route between Europe and Asia.”
Ali Rashid Lootah, the chairman of Nakheel, said: “Under this new partnership, Nakheel will proudly introduce one of the world’s biggest, most respected names in hospitality and an entirely new concept in hotel accommodation to Dubai.
“This is a major milestone for our growing hospitality business and a significant step towards creating a new range of affordable, family resort-style hotel accommodation in the Emirate, in line with the government of Dubai’s tourism vision for 2021.”
Nakheel recently appointed China State Construction Engineering Corporation and Korea’s Ssangyong Engineering & Construction to build three Dubai towers.
Image: Luis Riu and Ali Rashid Lootah
