Dubai to open world’s tallest hotel later next year, the JW Marriott Marquis
Posted on 18 April 2011 with 3 comments from readers
Dubai will open the world’s tallest freestanding hotel in mid-to-late 2012, announced Marriott president and managing director Edwin D. Fuller at a press conference held in the part-completed hotel today.
At 365 metres the twin towers of the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel will be the second and third tallest skyscrapers in Dubai. They will be higher than previous local holders of this title, the Rose Rotana and Burj Al Arab hotels.
1,614 deluxe rooms
This is only the second Marriott Marquis in the world. The first opened in Florida last year. It will open in two phases. The first with 800 rooms and the second tower will bring the total number of deluxe five-star rooms up to 1,614.
ArabianMoney was able to inspect the rooms on site today with Mr Fuller. They are contemporary minimalist in design with very large bathrooms. And with 4,000 square metres of meetng and conference space the Marquis expects to be a magnet for regional business conferences and conventions.
Marriott presently has 31 properties across the Middle East and North Africa region which Mr Fuller says will rise to 74 by 2015 although this total could rise to 100. Astonishingly Marriott’s program of hotel openings is not currently being adjusted for the wave of unrest, revolution and civil war that has swept across the region.
Hotels are full in Dubai but elsewhere resorts and cities have been emptied by the chaos and adverse travel advisories. Mr Fuller comments diplomatically that hotels have to live through ‘every type of business cycle’, and that he has seen them all in 20 years.
ATM event
Next month the annual Arabian Travel Market is hosted again by Dubai. But what a difference the past few months has made for the hospitality industry. Dubai expected to have a tough year. Nobody in the region expected this wave of unrisings.
Dubai city hotels are now full of Saudis, and the beach hotels with Europeans who might have otherwise been in Egypt, Jordan, Syria or Bahrain. It will be interesting to see if the Marriott can achieve its projected openings against this background.
If not they will have to try to squeeze those projected guests into the amazing Marriott Marquis with its 13 restaurants and lounges, including a steakhouse on the 61st floor and a bar on the 72nd. Dubai just carries on building while the region sinks into chaos.
3 Comments posted by readers:
Typically, the artist is showing the Marriott Marquis along side the creek when in fact, the towers are on Sheikh Zayed Road. Let’s see if the cheerleading data for the hospitality sector is as loud, as we move into the oppressive weather.
amazing
This is not the creek, this is Gulf bay which will be there as they are working on it, it seems that Paul King never been in Dubai or not aware of gulf bay project which big part of it is almost finished, I suggest he look at gogal map to see it.