Minor Hotels has added another Anantara-branded resort to its current four-hotel pipeline in Sharjah. The hotel group has signed a management agreement with Sharjah's Basma Group and property developer Arada to manage the Anantara Sharjah Resort, which is set for a mid-2020 opening.
The 233-guestroom property will be on the Sharjah beachfront near Sharjah International Airport. While Basma Group and Arada will co-own the resort, Arada will develop the project. The developer's pipeline also includes the $6.5-billion master-planned community Aljada, which will accommodate up to 70,000 residents, and The Nasma Residences residential community.
Thanks to a surge in revenue and the tourism industry, the Sharjah hotel industry has seen steady growth across various sectors ahead of its vision to welcome 10 million tourists by 2021. The emirate's current hotel inventory totals more than 100 hotels and serviced apartments managed by various hotel groups, including Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Louvre Hotels Group, Premier Inn Hotels, Rotana Hotels & Resorts, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts and Wyndham Worldwide. Meanwhile, performance has also been up in the city, as it achieved high occupancy at 70 percent between January and June 2017 and hotel guest numbers reached 885,000. The Sharjah Hospitality Industry Forum has forecast the UAE tourism industry will top global growth with a 5-percent increase in growth per year to $71 billion within the next decade.
As part of its expansion throughout the GCC, Minor Hotels also recently joined with Katara Hospitality to develop three hotels in Qatar by spring 2018. Katara will own the new-build properties, which will operate under Minor’s Tivoli and Oaks brands.