Rove Hotels To Push Dubai Branding Overseas, Sees Interest In Europe
Photo Caption: Rove Expo 2020 Dubai Hotel. Supplied
Skift Take
With Dubai running out of space and visitor targets going up, local brands are beginning to think outside the emirate to drive more people to the destination.
Dubai-born hospitality brand Rove Hotels is ready to start expanding overseas. A joint venture between Burj Khalifa creator company Emaar and local holding firm Meraas, Rove was founded to help fill Dubai's affordable accommodation gap.
With the backing of Emaar, Rove has secured some of the most coveted plots in the city, with its debut hotel opening in Downtown Dubai, and Dubai Marina and the Expo 2020 site in later years.
Today, Rove has around 3,500 rooms open and another 2,000 in the pipeline, with the ambition of having 10,000 keys open or in development within the next five years. Currently, all nine of Rove's operational hotels are in Dubai, but Rove COO Paul Bridger is eyeing Saudi Arabia, the wider Gulf and even capital cities in Europe.
"Our success [at Rove] is led by the UAE and the country has continued to be strong," Bridger told Skift. "Rove was born to address that whole [mid-market] gap. In the UAE much of the hotel inventory sits at the top in an upside-down pyramid where five-star and luxury are at the top and more affordable brands are at the bottom. If you want to meet your tourism ambitions,
