Dubai entrepreneur plans booze-free hotel chain

Dubai-based Almulla Hospitality plans to build up to 90 hotels around the world that will not offer alcohol and will serve only halal meals, the company said on Monday.

Almulla said details of the proposal would be revealed to institutional investors and high net worth individuals (HNWIs) at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in May, with the aim of raising up to $2 billion to fund the idea.

Abdulla Mohamed Almulla, chairman of Almulla, said that although the idea of Islamic-friendly hotels was nothing new, efforts so far had been piecemeal.

"The market for Islamic hotels is currently fragmented due to lack of professional management and we recognise the growing need for a professionally-operated international hotel chain which operates on Islamic principles," Almulla said in a statement.

The Middle East is planning to build around 900 hotels by 2020 and Almulla believes that his chain, operating under the brand names Cliftonwood, Adham and Wings, could account for up to 90 of these properties.

The company also believes there is enormous untapped potential around the world for a professionally-run chain of Islamic-compliant hotels.

"The Muslim traveller market is growing around the world due to increasing wealth combined with conscious lifestyle living and represents 10% of the world tourism market - one of the fastest growing segments," said Almulla.

Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest outbound travel markets in terms of average spend with tourists from the kingdom spending $6.7 billion annually on overseas travel, according to travel industry research.

Travellers from the UAE are close behind at more than $4.9 billion, an average of $1,700 per trip, which is $500 higher than the European average.