Ritz-Carlton Keen To Establish Presence In Saudi Arabia

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is surveying properties across Saudi Arabia to establish its presence. “We’re interested in properties in Riyadh and Jeddah, and of course in Makkah. Hopefully we will succeed sooner than expected,” said Marc F Dardenne, Ritz-Carlton’s vice-president and area general manager based in Dubai, at a road show recently.

Dardenne heads a team from the international company and feels that the opportunity to be part of a region of substantial growth is a tremendous opportunity. The company has 59 luxurious properties worldwide in 23 years of its existence, including five in the region in Dubai, Doha, Bahrain, Sharm El-Sheikh and Istanbul. “We’re also looking at Kuwait, Beirut, Cairo and Amman among other places to locate our new hotels and resorts in the region,” he added.

The company has also announced plans to open a 330-room hotel at the Dubai international financial Centre, with 121 serviced and managed apartments. Scheduled to open in 2008, this will be the second Ritz-Carlton in Dubai. A presentation given at the Elaf Travel and Tourism offices included an audiovisual focus on summer breaks at Ritz-Carlton’s hotels and resorts, especially across the Middle East and Europe. The region’s properties in focus included Dubai, Doha, Bahrain Villas & Spa, and Sharm El-Sheikh. The others included Istanbul, Berlin and Barcelona.

The company’s hotels in the Middle East have been the recipient of a slew of awards in four categories at the recent DEPA Middle East Hotel Awards ceremony. The Dubai property received the ‘Commitment to Quality Award’ and the ‘Young Hotelier of the Year Award’. The hotel manager of the year award went to Marc Dardenne. The Bahrain property has been recognized for the second year running of the ‘Hotel Spa Facility of the Year Award’.