Dubai hotel chain Jumeirah has Asia firmly on its radar

China is set to have more Jumeirah hotels than any other country in the world aside from Dubai, as the luxury hotel chain gets serious about its Asia expansion.

The Dubai-based hotel firm has 10 Asia-Pacific projects in the pipeline, eight of them in China, Jumeirah’s group chief development officer Shafi Syed told the Post during a recent trip to Hong Kong.

“Our Chinese customer profile has grown significantly from the time we opened.We see the [Chinese] sector growing in the near future,” he said.

Last year, over 176,000 Chinese guests visited Jumeirah hotels outside China.

Hong Kong is on Jumeirah’s radar, too, but isn’t part of its immediate plans which include Sanya, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Haikou, Macau, Qiandouhu, and Wuhan.

Jumeirah Nanjing, which was designed by acclaimed British designer, the late Zaha Hadid, will be launching in the second quarter next year, making it the company’s second China-based hotel after it opened in Shanghai in 2011.

“It’ll be one of the tallest buildings in Nanjing and so will be quite iconic. I’m sure it will make some headlines when it does open,” he told the Post.