Elisabetta Gucci plans 40 hotels over 15 years
June 6, 2010-DUBAI (Reuters) – Luxury hotelier Elisabetta Gucci is planning 40 hotels over the next 15 years in the Middle East, Far East and South America and aims to open its first hotel in Dubai at the end of 2010, an executive told Reuters.
Partner Lorens Ziller at Elisabetta Gucci Hotels & Resorts told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit the construction of the 87-room luxury boutique hotel is completed, with the firm eyeing a second hotel in China next year.
Elisabetta Gucci is daughter of Italian fashion designer Paolo Gucci.
“We intend to develop other hotels for the GCC, and outside our focus will be Russia, China, Far East, Africa and South America, particularly Brazil,” said Ziller. “We would like to have 40 hotels in 15 years but think this can be over achieved.”
Dubai, which suffered the sharpest drops in hotel revenues regionally in 2009, is seeing signs of recovery with improved occupancies, as the Gulf’s tourism and trade hub emerges from the impact of the global financial crisis.
The emirate, one of seven comprising the United Arab Emirates, is famous for its opulent hotels.
“If we had a 300-room hotel I would be seriously concerned,” Ziller told Reuters. “But even in the downturn there’s great potential for boutique hotels in Dubai.”
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