Hundreds of new hotel rooms are to open on the Palm Jumeirah after many projects were mothballed in the financial crisis.
A Rixos luxury hotel is expected to open on the Palm this month, and Al Habtoor has restarted work on its Dh1 billion (US$272 million) hotel on the island, which will be managed under Hilton's Waldorf Astoria brand. The long-delayed Fairmont hotel and Royal Amwaj resort are also scheduled to open this year.
Last week, Nakheel announced plans to build a retail project on the Palm island's trunk, to include a public walkway, residences, shops and restaurants.
"The Palm Jumeirah is receiving renewed attention from the main developer, the sub-developers as well as from Dubai visitors and event organisers," said Chiheb ben Mahmoud, the head of hotel advisory at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels Middle East and Africa.
"With all the other iconic mega-projects on hold, Palm Jumeirah is at the forefront of the marketing of Dubai as a destination. The potential of the micro-destination is substantial," said Mr ben Mahmoud.
Most of the development on thePalm, with an original master plan that included the Trump International Hotel and Tower and having the QE2 moored off the island as a luxury hotel, was put on hold or cancelled as the property market and economic conditions deteriorated.
Hoteliers in Dubai have reported occupancy levels and room rates are up this month compared with January last year, helped by the Arab Spring diverting tourists to the emirate, and by the Dubai Shopping Festival and good weather, all of which has created more confidence in the sector.
The Palm is still a far cry from the vision of its original master plan for 30 five-star hotels with 14,000 rooms. But some of those hotels are materialising.
"We are now already the fifth operating hotel and there are a number of other properties slated for opening in the near future," said Basak Erel, the senior vice president of brand management for Rixos Hotels, an operator based in Turkey.
"This would allow the Palm to go from strength to strength."
She described the Palm as "a high-end engineering masterpiece".
A One&Only hotel opened on the Palm at the end of 2010, the first new hotel on the island since the launch of the Atlantis resort in 2008, just as the global economic downturn was reaching Dubai. The Zabeel Saray, managed by Jumeirah, was launched at the beginning of the year, followed by a Kempinski hotel and residences in the summer. Rixos was originally meant to manage the property that became the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray hotel, while Jumeirah had signed an agreement to manage the hotel that has now been taken over by Rixos.
Kempinski is hoping that its delayed second hotel on the Palm will open next year.
"We have observed that the confidence in the property market has increased," said Michael Scully, the managing director of hospitality at Seven Tides, the developer of the Royal Amwaj resort, which has been delayed repeatedly but is now expected to open in the second half of the year.
