Posts tagged "dubai"
18 Jun 2013

  • Saudi prince invites world’s largest cities to bid for mile-high tower

    Destinations

    Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says he is looking at the world’s largest cities, including Shanghai, Moscow, London and New York, as possible locations to build a mile-high skyscraper that would be the world’s tallest building by far. The prince is inviting Dubai’s biggest real estate developer Emaar Properties, chaired by Mohammed Alabbar, to [...]

11 Jun 2013

  • The state of staff satisfaction and salaries at hotels across the Middle East

    Destinations

    Over the years, the Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey has generally uncovered a workforce that feels underpaid and concerned about the future. This year, a few streaks of light may suggest a new dawn for sentiment and salaries. The hands of history are still developing the Middle East’s hospitality industry, revealing a polarised picture of [...]

  • Dubai’s economic rebound hinged on hotel and restaurant activity

    Destinations

    Dubai’s gross domestic product expanded the most in five years in 2012 as the emirate, whose economy collapsed after the global credit crisis, rebounded on hotel and restaurant activities. The emirate’s economy grew 4.4 percent last year, compared with 3.6 percent in 2011 and 3.5 percent in 2010, according to Dubai Statistics Center data. The [...]

  • Dubai needs more money to finance its ambitious development dreams

    Destinations

    Dubai is back with the big plans. What it doesn’t have are the biggest property investors. Surging home prices in parts of Dubai and rebounding shopping and tourism markets are prompting developers to announce projects on a scale not seen since the emirate’s property market collapsed in 2008. So far, sovereign wealth, pension and insurance [...]

09 Jun 2013

  • The world’s largest mall eyes 100 million visitors with huge expansion

    Destinations

    The massive expansion of The Dubai Mall, described as the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination, has commenced its preparation to welcome over 100 million annual visitors to the mall. With the first phase expansion by 1 million square feet, the fashion portfolio of the mall will be further strengthened, enhancing the city’s high-end retail [...]

04 Jun 2013

  • What Starwood learned by moving its execs to Dubai for a month

    Destinations

    Gone are the days when world-weary travelers preferred hotels that reminded them of home and provided a respite from the location they were visiting. Today, savvy travelers expect hotels to not only provide the creature comforts of home but while stay true to their surroundings. To meet that need, execs at Starwood Hotels & Resorts [...]

03 Jun 2013

  • Dubai makes authentic souvenirs accessible with new tourist market

    Destinations

    Come October, and tourists and residents in Dubai will not have to settle for Emirati souvenirs made in China that are at present available at the airport and in shopping malls. A new traditional souq set to open in Deira will offer all that belongs to traditional Emirati life and they will be locally made. [...]

28 May 2013

  • Jumeirah sees opportunity to expand, seeks $1.4 billion loan

    Destinations

    Jumeirah Group LLC is raising $1.4 billion in a six-year loan as the operator of Dubai’s iconic sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel takes advantage of a drop in borrowing costs, two bankers familiar with the plan said. State-owned Jumeirah will pay 2.75 percentage points above the London interbank offered rate for the loan, according to [...]

20 May 2013
17 May 2013

  • Dubai’s Atlantis hotel is in the market for loan to refinance its debt

    Destinations

    Atlantis the Palm, the hotel owned by Dubai World Corp. unit Istithmar World PJSC, is seeking an $850 million loan to refinance debt due in 2017, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The resort, which spent $20 million on its launch party in 2008, has hired Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, Barclays [...]