New flagship Kempinski hotel in Makkah

Saudi Arabia - Kempinski Hotels has announced a new luxury project in Makkah. The signing ceremony with the partnering company, Umm Al-Qura for Development and Construction Company (UAQ), took place last week at the Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai. The property will entail a luxury hotel and will be the flagship edifice within the new boulevard on the King Abdul Aziz Road (KAAR) megaproject.

The Kempinski Hotel Makkah will include 380 rooms and suites, each of them offering at least 42 net square meters. The hotel will be equipped with plenty of top-notch amenities catering for a luxury pilgrim experience. An all-day dining restaurant, a restaurant specializing in Levantine cuisine and a coffee lounge will offer guests a variety of culinary experiences. A ballroom and conference rooms will address the needs of the most discerning clients.

The KAAR project is directly linked with the Haramain High-Speed Railway station that links Makkah to Jeddah and Madinah.

“With our newly signed hotel project in Makkah, we will be present in the most important destination within Saudi Arabia and the world’s holiest city of Islam. We are proud that together with UAQ, a locally very well-established and highly respected real estate company, we will play a major role in shaping the all-new KAAR boulevard, which links our new project in Makkah with our previously signed property in Madinah. A presence in the two cities will allow us to boost exponentially the performance of both hotels while merging very well with the country’s Vision 2030,” said Martin R. Smura, chief executive, Kempinski Hotels and chairman of the Kempinski Management Board.

Yasser AbuAteek, managing director and chief executive of Umm Al-Qura, said: “We are proud to announce that we will build up the Kempinski Hotel Makkah as one of the major milestones we are taking toward our vision to serving the people of Makkah and its visitors ... it will be an icon within our envisioned 1.25-million-square-meters New Makkah District. What counted most for us was the expertise of managing hotels and residences from a European perspective integrated with local and cultural refinements and considerations. Kempinski has not only proven on a global scale, but specifically in the Middle East, where the company’s reputation is impeccable.”

Both Kempinski and UAQ leadership agreed on exploring the possibilities of integrating sustainable and green building requirements to ensure that the hotel is in line with global standards of sustainability and is environmentally friendly.

Currently Kempinski manages six properties in the Gulf, the most recent of which is Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai.

The Kempinski Hotel Makkah is scheduled to open in 2023.