The Spanish hospitality holding giant Barceló Hotel Group announced a new milestone with its newest project Occidental IMPZ Dubai, Conference and Events Centre, set to open this month. This will be the first of the brand’s Occidental range in the Middle East, the new Dubai-based hotel will serve as a meeting and conference hub for the upcoming Expo 2020.
Occidental IMPZ Dubai, Conference and Events Centre will offer 239 expansive rooms with accessible amenities and a contemporary interior. Catering to business travellers, the guestrooms and the five meeting rooms will be equipped with cutting-edge technology featuring smart automation system, smart TVs and high-speed wi-fi. In addition, the hotel will provide six unique cuisine offerings, a ballroom, conference area, two swimming pools and a fitness centre.
“From concept to completion, Occidental IMPZ Dubai, Conference and Events Centre represents a modern and striking addition to Dubai’s hospitality scene,” says Goulam Amarsy, CEO of Barceló Gulf, partner of Barceló Hotel Group in the Middle East. “We continue to grow in UAE and we are adapting our strategy to suit the unique needs of the local residents as well as international business and leisure travellers. There is a strong demand for Barceló in the Middle East and a desire for the distinctive design, prime locations and all-round top-quality service that we are known for worldwide.”
The opening signifies the group’s plans to cement its brand presence in the Middle East and significantly increase its footprint across the region in the next five years. The new property is just one of eight new ventures the group announced were in the pipeline for the UAE. Earlier this year Jaime Buxó, chief development officer at Barceló Hotel Group, commented: “As a company, one-third of our hotels are our own, one-third are hotels that have been leased and the last bit is managed. This means that when we arrived here in the Middle East, we were very flexible with the owners here. And the locals, they really liked this flexibility in our approach. We as a company have been around for 86 years and have been owned and managed by the same family,” he tells TTN.
“We are definitely looking at expanding our reach outside Dubai. We can humbly admit that we have, over the years, perfected the art of managing large, all-inclusive resorts, making us the worldwide leaders in that category. I am talking 500-600 rooms, plenty of restaurants, entertainment areas, kids areas. If you visit our resorts in the Caribbean for instance, we have resorts of up to 3,000 rooms.”
The group currently operates two hotels in the region – Barceló Residences Dubai Marina and Occidental Sharjah Grand, and is set to open Dubai property Barceló Al Jadaf in June 2019.
Barceló Hotel Group is part of the extensive tourism offerings of the Barceló Group including tour operators, incoming services, an airline and 700 travel agencies. The hotel division of the Barceló Group is the third largest chain in Spain and the 29th in the world. It has four key brands: Royal Hideaway Luxury Hotels & Resorts, Barceló Hotels & Resorts, Occidental Hotels & Resorts y Allegro Hotels.