Germany’s Oetker Collection was due to open its first hotel in the Middle Eastern Gulf Cooperation Council this year, but it seems like the plans have fallen through: Hotelier Middle East is reporting that the Collection has formally withdrawn from a contract to operate the Hotel Le Bristol Abu Dhabi, part of a partnership with the National Corporation for Tourism & Hotels (NCTH) that was due to open in the second half of 2013.
The Abu Dhabi hotel was reportedly inspired by Oetker’s Hotel Le Bristol Paris (pictured), and was the vision of NCTH chairman HE Sheikh Hamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan. The plans for the hotel date back to February 2009, and in a statement, Oetker VP sales and marketing Alain Briere said that the project "cannot be executed to an extent necessary to make the project a long-term success.”
“He came and stayed in our hotel Le Bristol and said ‘this is what I want’. They wanted to replicate that kind of luxury,” Oetker Collection SVP for development — Middle East and Africa Samir Daqqaq told Hotelier Middle East back in July 2012. Other properties in the collection include the Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa in Baden and the Palais Namaskar in Marrakech.
“We are looking at Oman, we’re looking at Doha, of course, Dubai is definitely on the radar screen big time,” Daqqaq said.