Jumeirah Group has signed a deal to operate its first hotel in Oman as part of a new wave of planned hotel openings in the sultanate.
The Dubai Holding unit, which runs a portfolio including the distinctive Burj Al Arab hotel, announced yesterday that it had signed a management agreement with the body which is developing a 2.2 million square metre tourism and housing complex near Qantab in the Muscat district of north eastern Oman.
Jumeirah said that it had signed the deal with Saraya Bandar Jissah to operate the resort, which is expected to open in 2017.
The resort, which is being developed by Saraya Oman, part of the Dubai-based developer Saraya Holdings in partnership with Oman’s tourism and development arm Omran, will comprise two hotels – one of 206 rooms and the other of 106 rooms – as well as a 1,200 sq metre spa, a dive centre, restaurants and bars.
The resort forms part of a larger development that will also include town houses and villas and has been described by the developer as the largest residential and tourism project to break ground in the country since 2007.
“This luxury resort will be a major contribution to the high-end hotel market,” said Hamood Sultan Al Hosni, the chief executive of Saraya Bandar Jissah.
According to the property broker Cluttons, the number of hotel rooms in the Muscat governorate is set to double over the next five years from a current stock of about 3,750 to around 7,750 as the country finally realises long-held plans to quadruple the number of tourists it receives each year to 12 million.
Other hotel developments include: the 309-room five-star Kempinski Hotel at the Wave, which is scheduled to be completed by the Omani Hospitality Company during the first half of 2015 and The Panorama at Al Khuwair, which is being developed by Allied Real Estate.
Plans to grow the number of hotels in the country were announced in 2009 but many have been delayed by the global financial crisis.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
