The super deluxe Westin Dubai opened last night with a champagne reception and concert by the UAE Philharmonic Orchestra with special guest singers. But the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference this week saw a complete slump in new hotel projects in Dubai, with only one budget easyHotel launched in the Jebel Ali Free Zone.

The Westin Dubai is the latest addition to the glittering array of up market properties and its translucent interior design by Tuscan lead designer Habitalia Design Group in association with Studitalia is a triumph.

As is often the case in Dubai the designers have been able to work unmolested by a client, in this case the Dubai Government, and have delivered something really quite exceptionally beautiful: modern but not minimalist, rich but comfortable and ultra cool.

Credit crunch

On the same day the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference wrapped up it marathon three-day sessions with yet another record for attendance this year. However, the event was overshadowed by the global credit crunch which has slashed hotel transactions by 60 per cent with the biggest deals being axed by private equity groups unable to raise finance.

But even the Dubai hotel boom has run out of steam this year. There was only a small easyHotel launched, albeit part of a promised big chain in the region. Last year the Dubai Government’s Bawadi doubled the size of its 10-kilometre desert hotel strip from 31 to 51 hotels and upped the investment from $16.5 to $55 billion.

Perhaps there was just no way to top that! But it was intriguing to attend a session entitled ‘Will the Dubai hotel bubble burst?’ Everybody argued that it would go on for years, not making the obvious observation that in terms of new hotel project launches the bubble has burst.

Optimism rules

Of course there may be many years of new hotel openings like The Westin Dubai, a project where the owner will get its investment back within two years, and most of the bookings are already in hand.

This is what has fired the hospitality boom in Dubai where hotels currently have the highest occupancy levels in the world and rates to match. The economics of the hotel business are a license to print money with Dubai the flavour of the month for global business and tourism.

However, with plans afoot to raise the number of hotel rooms from 47,000 to 141,000 by 2015 this is going to feel like a hotel boom for many years to come, even if the new hotel launches have faded away. That will make the industry trade fair, the Arabian Travel Market which opens today a continuing success.