Viceroy Hotel Group to expand further in the Middle East

Luxury Society Blog

U.S. based Viceroy Hotel Group, partly owned by KSA’s Mubadala, is considering expanding further in the GCC countries, eyeing Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE. ”We are obviously very proud of our presence in Abu Dhabi, and with having such a strong and successful hotel there, to complement that with a presence in Dubai would make a lot of sense commercially and strategically for us,” says Bill Walsh, CEO.

Viceroy operates hotels throughout the US, Abu Dhabi, Maldives and the Caribbean, including the iconic five-star hotel that sits atop Abu Dhabi’s Formula One track and is due to open next year its hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. Viceroy Hotel Group is 50 percent owned by Mubadala following the investment group’s 50 percent acquisition of Kor Hotel Management in July 2008.

Viceroy has benefited from a rise in tourists from the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, said Walsh. “As we look across the GCC there are markets that we benefit from greatly from an outbound basis at the moment.

“Saudi Arabia is a very strong market for many of our hotels in North America and it would be fantastic to have a presence in that market. Not only would it make sense for our standalone business to be in the kingdom but it would also help accelerate business from that market to other properties,” he added.

adapted from arabianbusiness.com

Viceroy Hotel, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi