Guidance Financial Group launches Fund Targeting US$500 Million in Hotel Development

Guidance Financial Group is launching an innovative fund that will introduce a new hotel brand in the Middle East and North Africa.

The new brand, Shaza Hotels, was established in a joint venture with Kempinski and aims to develop 20 hotel properties across the region over the next decade.

Whilst the typical hotel in the Middle East is an imported product with little connection to the region, Shaza Hotels aims to be a modern hotel brand that celebrates the aesthetic, art of living and values of the broader region.

“There is no reason why our region cannot produce a world-class hotel brand that expresses in a contemporary setting the richness of our heritage, in the same way as East Asia, for example, has produced its own brands,” said Dr. Mohamad Hammour, executive chairman of Guidance Financial Group.

The new brand will capitalise on the strong growth of intra-regional travel, which is being fuelled by growth in short break holidays and business travel as well as the substantial tourism infrastructure investment in the region. The new hotel fund’s current pipeline of hotel projects includes Dubai, Cairo, Beirut, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Muscat.

"There will be hotels on offer across the Middle East and North Africa that are distinctly conceived, designed and operated specifically for culturally aware regional and international travellers," said Christopher Hartley, chief executive officer of the newly launched hotel brand.