The Palm

The three colossal palm-shaped islands being developed off the coast of Dubai by Nakheel will add more than 200 hotels to the emirate’s expanding hospitality sector.

All 30 planned hotels on the Palm Jumeirah have been committed to hotel developers. Big names include the Atlantis resort and The Trump International Hotel and Tower. The sister islands Palm Deira and Palm Jebel Ali will add approximately 180 more hotels, although no operators have been named so far, said Nakheel CEO Chris O’Donnell. These hotels will significantly boost Dubai’s hotel capacity, which, analysts say, is currently failing to cope with demand levels.

They will add around 50 to the 414 hotels and serviced apartments, including 282 hotels, which Dubai boasted at the end of 2006. Current room occupancy rates are a world-high 83.1, according to hospitality and leisure consultants Roya International. "The hotels will certainly contribute to the success of Dubai and help to ensure its long term sustainability," said Ahmad Ramdan, Roya’s managing director. "However, if they are all in the luxury category this will create an oversupply. They must be varied in terms of style and pricing and, due to their coastline location, must be environmentally sustainable."

The first hotel opening on the Palm Jumeirah will be the 1.2 billion 1,500-room Atlantis at the end of next year, said a Nakheel spokesperson. "There will be several more openings in 2009 and the majority will open by 2012." "Given that Palm Deira will have a (population of) one million people and Palm Jebel Ali and Dubai Waterfront (which is linked to the island) will have a million people, we’re looking at 180 hotels between the two, on top of the 30 on Palm Jumeirah. That’s an approximation but it’s our current projection," said O’Donnell.

Several other major projects will boost Dubai’s hotel count, including Jumeirah Beach Residences in Dubai Marina, which will include four hotels and four beach clubs. Tatweer’s Dh100 billion Bawadi project in Dubailand will add a further 29,000 rooms in 31 hotels by 2015, including the world’s biggest hotel, the 6,500 room Asia Asia Hotel. This year the emirate expects to have 11,000 new rooms, most of them in the high-end category.