A sports hotel brand developed in the UAE intends to expand in the Gulf region, its CEO has said.
Emirates Sports Hotel and Apartments is a 192-bed facility in Dubai that is specifically designed to cater to the needs of athletes and sportspeople.
Large rooms, health and fitness-conscious meals, and the availability of yoga mats and dumbbells in reception are just some of the features that Emirates Sports Group’s CEO, Vladimir Burdun, has put in place to create an Olympic Village-style facility for teams and athletes.
He has noticed a strong demand for the hotel since the brand was established two years ago and now has plans to grow.
“We have been nearly fully booked for the last two years,” he said.
“I believe that Dubai is a good destination to open another one or two buildings.”
Looking further afield, expansion, for now, will be in the Middle East, where he can keep an eye on each property. He has considered England, Portugal, the US and China but says they are not realistic at the moment.
In the Gulf region, “it’s easy for us to manage”, he said.
“I believe it’s easily five to seven to ten hotels we can expand to in the Middle East,” he said.
Saudi Arabia, he said, “is still difficult” but Bahrain is more realistic, and Qatar would be easier.
For the initial phase, however, he’s focused on the UAE.
“I would rather go to maybe Sharjah or Fujairah because for me that destination is quite clear,” he said.
Abu Dhabi, he said, is too focused on five-star hotels for him to consider it right now.
The company also plans to open the region’s first professional ice rink in April next year, something that has been in the works since before the hotel opened.
Emirates Sports Group is a family-run company of 16 entities, including a facility management arm and a real estate brokerage.
It started as a sports events company but issues with securing accommodation for participants led to the idea of starting a hotel.
Burdun, originally from Serbia, said they had several discussions with hotel operators but didn’t find any that were compatible with hosting sports teams.
The hotel, located in Dubai Sports City, has training facilities for athletics, football, cricket, swimming, rugby and golf, all within driving distance.
Dubai is among the leading cities in the Middle East for sports events, hosting major golf tournaments, ATP tennis tournaments, Dubai World Cup horseracing and the Dubai Rugby Sevens.
In February last year, Dubai Sports Council approved a ten-year strategy to develop the emirate’s sports sector and increase its yearly contribution to the city’s GDP from two percent to four percent. Sports is currently worth AED9 billion ($2.45 billion) to Dubai’s economy.
The strategy plans to organise 3,000 local, regional and international events and host 1,000 international training camps.
