Abu Dhabi-based hotel operator Rotana is looking to grow in the Middle East and North Africa. By 2020, the company plans to operate at least 100 properties.
Several hundred rooms will come from two planned Dubai hotels. A 400-room hotel is set to open on Sheikh Zayed Road that will also include a 200-room hotel/apartment complex and 400 residences. A 600-room Wafi Rotana is also in the works. Both are expected to open by 2019.
The first of the group’s hotels to open will be a 354-room resort on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island that was initially planned to open last year.
The group is also set to expand in Africa, with the 100-room Kin Plaza Arjaan by Rotana in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this year. The 140-room M Avenue Arjaan by Rotana in Marrakech will follow in Morocco in 2018, and Rotana also has properties under development in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Lagos in Nigeria and Luanda in Angola.
Meanwhile, Iran is also on the radar as the lifting of sanctions makes it easier to do business with the country. The group is eyeing two properties in Isfahan by 2019. The first of these is expected next year. It has four properties with a total of 640 rooms under development in Tehran and Mashhad, planned to open by 2018. These include Rayhaan by Rotana Mashhad, the four-star Tehran Rayhaan by Rotana and the five-star Tehran Rayhaan by Rotana.
Source: The National