PALMA DE MALLORCA — RIU Hotels & Resorts and Dubai master developer Nakheel have formally signed their business partnership agreement. Ali Rashid Lootah, Chairman of one of the Middle East’s biggest developers, travelled to Mallorca to sign the joint venture agreement with Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels.

Thanks to this partnership, the chain’s first hotel in Dubai will become a reality in 2019 and RIU will become the first international hotel chain, and the only Spanish one, to sign an agreement with Nakheel. In its strategy of expansion into the hospitality business, Nakheel is planning 10 hotels across Dubai. The first opened earlier this month, and six more have been announced or signed.

The planned RIU hotel will be located at Nakheel’s Deira Islands master development, and will be unique at the destination as, with 750 rooms, it will be the largest built there to date, as well as the first to offer 24-Hour All Inclusive service.

Deira Islands is one of Nakheel’s large-scale coastal projects in Dubai and it will feature, in addition to hotels, the Deira Mall retail and entertainment complex, the Deira Islands Night Market with 5,300 shops, a marina and an amphitheatre seating 30,000 people.

Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts, said that “the formal signing of this partnership represents another step towards making the first RIU project in the Middle East a reality. We’re proud to have a partner with the experience and prestige of Nakheel for undertaking this ambitious project. Dubai is one of the great new centres of international tourism as it represents a strategic enclave on the route between Europe and Asia.”

Nakheel is known worldwide for delivering large-scale, landmark engineering projects including the globally-iconic Palm Jumeirah and The World. Deira Islands will add 40 km, including 21 kilometres of beachfront, to Dubai’s coastline.