The largest hotel operator in the Middle East, Accor, has said that there is strong international interest from travellers looking to travel to Dubai.
Mark Willis, CEO MEA Accor, told Arabian Business that there has been a spike searches from international countries, mainly coming from the UK, US, France and Germany, as well as demand from local markets including Morocco, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
He said: “If there’s another location that markets itself better than Dubai, I don’t know where that is. They pitch themselves so fabulously globally and you can see the traction already with regards to forward bookings as we go out of July and into August and don’t forget, July and August are still the summer period and it’s a relatively subdued period of demand.”
To date, the company runs 299 hotels across the MENA region, with 134 of these in the Middle East and 64 in the UAE. The French multinational hospitality company operates 45 hotels in Dubai, which equates to almost 10,000 rooms in the emirate alone through brands such as Raffles, Fairmont and Sofitel, as well as Movotel, Ibis and Mercure.
