Shariah-compliant worldwide hotel chain to be launched

Shariah-compliant worldwide hotel chain to be launched

In order to tap the growing Middle East travel market, Dubai-based Almulla Hospitality has planned for an international chain of Islamic hotels, which will develop 150 hotels across the globe, with around 90 in Middle East and Mena region of North Africa, and 60 in other parts of the world with Muslim interests. The group has tied up with UK-based Jasper Capital Group for development of these hotels.

Chairman of Almulla Hospitality, Abdulla Mohamed Saeed Almulla, said, “These hotels will be in strict compliance with the Shariah and will primarily cater to the Islamic community.” He said that this segment is growing at a fast rate responsible for around 10 per cent of global tourism.

He elaborated that these hotels will follow severe observance of universal codes like no-alcohol, no pork, only halal meat, exclusive prayer area with marked Kabah direction, etc. Informing about the various brands of these hotels, Abdulla said, “Our brand scheme is international so that guests can feel the consistency and uniformity. We will name our brands Adham, Cliftonwood and Wings.” The group plans to develop its properties through management contracts, joint ventures and selective acquisitions following different investment arrangements.

Tagged: Islamic Finance, Islamic Banking, Islamic hotels, hospitality

Islamic hotels here to stay

First islamic hospitality congress set for Dubai

The Islamic hospitality market is said to be currently growing at a fast pace in the Middle East as well as in many popular international destinations favoured by Middle Eastern travellers, such as the UK and Germany. Islamic travellers have specific travel requirements to which Islamic hotels respond.

This group of hotels comply with Shari’ah rules and focus on values such as family and health, innovative value-added services, and unique design elements derived form traditional Islamic architecture.

Thanks to those competencies, they have gained a significant competitive advantage in the hospitality market and have succeeded not only in attracting Islamic travellers but also international travellers who want to experience the true Islamic hospitality during their stay.

The Islamic hospitality industry has a potential of growth that financial institutions, always looking to offer new and innovative products by developing new vehicles for investment, have clearly understood. The Islamic real estate market being already well established, financiers are now looking into that industry, which appears to represent a very profitable investment.

The first Islamic Hotel Expansion Congress (3-4 December 2007 at the Hilton Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai) gives the opportunity to Islamic hotel operators, developers, banks, private equity firms, real estate firms, asset management companies, hospitality consulting companies and financiers to find strategic partners, to network, share knowledge and learn about strategies that could help them in their expansion and investment projects.

Participants will attend exclusive conference sessions led by professionals involved in Islamic Hotel expansion and experts from the hotel industry, namely: Naseem Javed, President, ABC Namebank International; Amgad Sobhy, Senior Vice President, Financial Control & Strategic Planning, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank; Aberahman Belgat, Managing Director, Saudi Arabia, Accor; Jalil Mekouar, Executive Vice President, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels; Mustafa Al Saleh, Vice Chairman, Managing Director and CEO, Adeem Investments; Armine Mourkazel, Managing Director, Golden Tulip Hotels; Binod Narasimhan, Chief Financial Officer, Istithmar; Hamza Farooqi, CEO, CII Holdings; Kamal Eldarrat, Chief Development Officer, ARADY; Shadi Sedhinejad, Senior Legal Consultant, Islamic Finance & Finance, DLA Piper.

The speakers will discuss the opportunities related to the globalisation of Shari’ah-compliant hospitality, the concept of global branding and positioning of Islamic hospitality, the four mega forces at play in GCC branding, what it takes to create Islamic hospitality icons as well as the Islamic real estate finance trends and strategies, the role of private equity in hospitality and the new Islamic investment concepts.

Judging from the range of views expressed recently at World Travel Market in London, and other industry occasions, on the potential and specific service elements of Islamic hospitality, the scene is set for an interesting discussion.

For more information visit www.islamichotelsme.com

World’s first international Shariah-compliant hotel chain

Almulla launches world’s first international Shariah-compliant hotel chain

Dubai-based hospitality group Almulla, today launched the world’s first Sharia compliant hotel brand portfolio under three core brand names of Cliftonwood, Adham and Wings.

The hotel group strategic plan calls for 30 properties by the end of 2008.

“There are plenty of individual Sharia compliant hotels throughout the world. However their positioning is usually dictated by the owner, either as an independent hotel, one within a chain or due to the Sharia law of country where they are situated,” commented Abdulla M Almulla, Chairman of Almulla Hospitality. “Our brand proposition is so distinct that guests will be confident that our brand values have universal consistency.”

The business case for Almulla Hospitality is to capture the GCC travellers who contribute over US$ 12 billion annually on leisure travel alone. According to the World Tourism Organization, Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest outbound travel markets in terms of average spend with tourists from the Kingdom spending US$ 6.7 billion annually on overseas travel. The UAE travellers are close behind at more than US$ 4.9 million, an average of US$ 1,700 per trip, which is US$ 500 higher than the European average.

The Muslim traveller market is increasing around the world due to the increasing wealth in their communities combined with conscious lifestyle living which represent ten per cent of the world tourism market, and is one of the fastest growing segments. Their average spend is ten to fifty per cent higher than that of the average leisure or business traveller. The bottom line is that conscious lifestyle tourism is expected to grow at a rate of twenty per cent per annum, five times more than the average traditional market segment.

The specific destinations targeted are Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Malaysia and Thailand. Beyond this first wave, Almulla Hospitality is looking forward to set operation in Europe with 15 deluxe hotels to be followed by 25 business hotels in “the second European wave”.

Overall strategy of the hotel group is to reach 150 hotels by 2013 with expected total investment of over $2 billion. Abdulla Almulla said that institutional investors and high net worth individuals (HNWI) will be the back bone for such growth drive.

All properties operating under these brands will respect and abide by the principles of Sharia and will not sell alcohol and only serve Halal prepared food, as interpreted by the Sharia law and the Sharia supervisory board. But, will go beyond that to create a socially responsible culture in all of its’ hotels, which will create a unique environment to our guests resulting in a high repeat guests.