Dubai hotel group executive brings urban resort ideal to projects in China
Having tested the waters in Shanghai, Jumeirah Group is continuing its push into Asia with a focus on leisure and corporate guests
The Jumeirah Group’s Shanghai hotel has proven so popular even the group’s own visiting executives can be hard pressed to get a room.
More than 500,000 guests have stayed in the Pudong-based Himalayas Hotel since it opened five years ago, and those numbers will have only encouraged the Dubai-based luxury hotel company and its newly appointed chief development officer Shafi Syed to look to Asia as the next growth market. After opening its first hotel 19 years ago, Jumeirah now operates 22 hotels across Europe and the Middle East, with additional hotels in Istanbul and the Maldives.
The company began its expansion in China with the 2011 debut in Shanghai. Next year it will open its futuristic Nanjing hotel, designed by late Iraqi-born British architect Dame Zaha Hadid.
In total, there are 10 Jumeirah projects under development in Asia-Pacific – and eight will be in greater China, including the Nanjing development.
Syed sees the company as different from a lot of hotel groups, which need to “put a flag somewhere” to show shareholder value.
“We’re a home-grown brand from Dubai which has aspirations to grow where our customers want us to grow. That’s really our strategy.”
