During the year 2001, tourist projects worth a total of 4.5 billion Emirati dirhams ($1.22 billion) were set up in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, reported the Khaleej Times. Of this sum, Dh700 million were invested by the Abu Dhabi National Hotels Company (ADNHC) and Dh1.2 billion were spent by the Rotana Hotel Management Corporation.
Many of the Emirate’s hotels are currently under reconstruction and several new hotels are also being built. The hotel capacity of Abu Dhabi is expected to rise by 17 percent by the end of 2002, reaching 5,765 rooms, reported Al-Alam Al-Yaum.
Established in 1978, ADNHC’s total assets stood at Dh1.175 billion in 1998. ADNHC owns six hotels in the emirate and manages seven other and a number of tourism outlets. It also supervises the duty-free complexes at Abu Dhabi and Al-Ain international airports.
The Abu Dhabi–based Rotana Hotel Management Corporation Limited, launched in 1993, now manages 17 properties throughout the Middle East, five of which opened in a span of six months. Rotana has recently opened three new regional sales offices in Kuwait, Cairo and London.
Abu Dhabi emirate was little known as a tourist destination until the discovery of oil financed its major development program. It is the largest of the seven Emirates—occupying a 26,000 square miles area—and is the federal capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dubbed the Garden City of the Gulf, Abu Dhabi stretches south to the oases of Liwa where some of the world’s largest sand dunes can be found. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
