Leisure & Hospitality QIA joint venture sells stake in high-end Turkish mall for $500m A joint venture between Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Turkey’s Dogus Holding has divested its 42 percent stake in a high-end shopping mall in Istanbul for $500 million, according to a media report. The stake was sold to Orjin Group, a local entity that already owns 58 percent of the IstinyePark mall, after the joint […] April 4, 2024
Video length: 5:33 VIDEO Leisure & Hospitality Merex’s revival of ‘challenging’ City Walk and La Mer Merex Investment is redeveloping its lifestyle beachfront destination La Mer and using its successful transformation of City Walk in Dubai as a benchmark for the revival of its failing assets. La Mer is to be renamed J1 Beach, with 13 new dining and club venues due to open in September 2024. Occupancy rates at City […] April 4, 2024
Retail Cenomi Retail to divest more brands in turnaround plan Franchiser Cenomi Retail has announced another round of brand divestments as it seeks to tackle rising losses. The Saudi company closed more than 200 stores last year and sold 16 brands in the first quarter of 2024. On Wednesday Cenomi Retail said its board of directors had approved the third phase of the sell-off. The […] April 3, 2024
Tourism Turkey secures more funds for Antalya airport expansion An additional $463 million financing has been secured to help upgrade and expand Turkey’s second busiest airport, Antalya. Antalya served more than 35 million passengers in 2023 which went some way towards Turkey recording record tourism receipts. The first phase of development will include the expansion of Terminal 2 and the construction of new general […] April 3, 2024
Tourism Qatar visitors increase by half in February Qatar reported a 53 percent increase in international visitors in February, according to official figures from the country’s tourism authority. It follows a 106 percent rise in international arrivals in January as Qatar builds towards its ambitious target to welcome six million visitors in 2030. Last year Qatar’s visitor numbers passed four million. In February […] April 2, 2024
Retail Saudi retailer Cenomi reveals major brand sale Saudi-based franchiser Cenomi Retail has announced the sale of 16 brands in the first quarter of 2024 as part of a turnaround strategy to stem mounting losses. Cenomi transferred 226 stores in Saudi Arabia to Abdullah Al Othaim Fashion Company. This follows the retailer’s exit from some international markets and the net closure of an […] April 2, 2024
Tourism Red Sea airport prepares for first international visitors Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Airport will record its first international visitors this month when a flight from Dubai arrives on April 18. Red Sea Global, the developer behind regenerative tourism destinations The Red Sea and Amaala, said the flight, operated by Flydubai, marks the start of a new twice-weekly route. Regular domestic flights operated […] April 1, 2024
Retail ADIA and Mubadala join $8.3bn China shopping mall deal Two Abu Dhabi state-backed companies are part of a group which has agreed to invest $8.3 billion to acquire a 60 percent stake in Chinese property major Dalian Wanda’s shopping mall subsidiary. The investment was led by Hong Kong private equity firm PAG, along with Platinum Peony B 2023 RSC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu […] April 1, 2024
Tourism Abu Dhabi to create 178,000 new tourism jobs Abu Dhabi wants to attract 40 million visitors and generate 178,000 new jobs in its tourism sector by 2030 to help diversify its economy away from oil. The emirate wants to increase tourism’s contribution to its non-oil GDP to AED90 billion ($24 billion) a year by the end of the decade, Abu Dhabi Media Office […] March 31, 2024
Opinion Tourism Craving for community sets travel trends for Ramadan European Muslims are increasingly keen to travel to Islamic countries to celebrate March 27, 2024
Leisure & Hospitality Kingdom Holding plans $267m dividend despite profit drop Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) plans to distribute a dividend of more than SAR1 billion ($267 million) for 2023 despite profits falling by 85 percent. The board of the investment company, founded by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, proposed a 2.8 percent cash dividend, totalling SAR1.03 billion, for 2023, subject to shareholders approval. Net profit […] March 27, 2024
Retail Cenomi Centers’ growth reflects Saudi retail potential Saudi Arabia’s largest operator of shopping malls has reported record footfall, which drove a 49 percent jump in net profit last year. The number of visitors to Cenomi Centers malls rose by 19 percent to 124 million in 2023, smashing the previous pre-Covid record of 114 million in 2019. The company delivered SAR2.3 billion ($613 […] March 26, 2024
Food & Drink Gulf SWFs named as potential suitors of The Ivy Gulf sovereign wealth funds are among a host of buyers said to be interested in taking charge of the group behind the UK’s prestigious Ivy restaurant. A £1 billion ($1.26 billion) sale is expected to be complete by the end of June. Troia, the company that owns the Ivy and some 50 other restaurants, is […] March 25, 2024
Leisure & Hospitality GCC visitors to Germany up 15% on eco-tourism push The number of visitors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries who visited Germany rose 15 percent year on year in 2023, attracted to the European nation’s cultural and sustainable tourism offerings. The total number of visitors reached 1.3 million last year, with the fourth quarter hitting a near pre-pandemic activity level with 263,985 overnight stays, […] March 24, 2024
Video length: 06:07 VIDEO Leisure & Hospitality Qiddiya to host Dragon Ball theme park Qiddiya, the Saudi Arabian entertainment city, plans to build a theme park based on the blockbuster Dragon Ball anime series. The Japanese franchise owner said on March 22 that the 500,000 square metre site would recreate locations from the original print and television cartoon series such as Kame House, Capsule Corporation and Beerus’s Planet, and […] March 22, 2024
Retail UAE’s Lulu selects banks for potential $2bn IPO UAE’s retail conglomerate LuLu Group International has appointed local and international banks to lead its proposed $2 billion initial public offering (IPO), according to a media report. The company, which is among the largest hypermarket chain operators in the Middle East, has selected Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital and HSBC Holdings to […] March 22, 2024
Analysis Tourism Abu Dhabi’s futuristic vision of an Egyptian metropolis By 2052, Egypt’s Ras El Hekma will be “competing with the most important cities of the world,” according to the new project’s promotional video. Published on February 23, the day the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ bought development rights to this stretch of coastline as part of a $35 billion deal, the video shows […] March 22, 2024
Health Aster DM says India, GCC business split nears closure Hospital chain Aster DM Healthcare has confirmed that the separation of its GCC and Indian businesses and the proposed investment in the former by a Dubai private equity firm are nearing completion. The company agreed to sell a 65 percent stake in its Gulf business to a state-backed Fajr Capital-led consortium for $1 billion in November […] March 21, 2024
Tourism Saudi Arabia plans tourist flights into the stratosphere From 2026, well-heeled tourists in Saudi Arabia will be able to book a day trip that is out of this world: a near-space flight priced at $164,000 per person. Halo Space, a Madrid-based company that is developing a craft for flights into the Earth’s stratosphere, has chosen the kingdom as one of its departure bases […] March 21, 2024
Giga-projects Red Sea Global says first hotels are open Red Sea Global, one of Saudi Arabia’s main giga-projects, said this week it has opened two hotels. Ben Edwards, group head of cost, commercial and procurement, said in a conference call on March 20 that Six Senses and St. Regis hotels had opened at the Red Sea Global site south of the remote town of […] March 20, 2024
Opinion Agriculture The memory of water: Saudi Arabia’s troubled history Growing crops and preserving water is a balancing act for Saudi Arabia March 20, 2024
Tourism Lebanon reports visitor increase despite border conflict Visitor numbers to Lebanon increased to their highest levels last year since the 2019 economic crisis, despite conflict on the southern border dampening tourism since October. Figures released by the Ministry for Tourism showed the number of visitors to Lebanon in 2023 reached 1.67 million, a 13.7 percent year-on-year increase. Lebanon registered 1.94 million inbound […] March 20, 2024
