Range Hospitality in $1bn religious tourism push

Makkah - one of the world's busiest religious tourism destinations.

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Dubai-based Range Hospitality, which specialises in developing hotels and residences in pilgrimage sites, is planning to invest $1bn in new projects over the next three to four years, the company’s CEO has confirmed.

“Range Hospitality would be investing a considerable amount of money in the next three to four years,” Munaf Ali, CEO Range Hospitality told CW's sister title Arabian Business.

Range currently has a pipeline of around $500m, which includes projects in the Iraqi cities of Karbala and Najaf, but Ali said it plans to invest an additional $500m in projects in Saudi Arabia and beyond.

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“Range Hospitality also has plans to build five-star properties in Mecca and Medina. Under the Range Holdings group of companies, Range Developments will be developing luxury hospitality projects outside of religious tourism, with projects soon to be launched in the Iraqi city of Baghdad and tourism destination of St. Kitts,” he added.

Last month, construction of Range's $175m Al Rawdatain Residences hotel project in Karbala got underway. The 12-storey hotel project was launched in August 2010 and is due to be completed by the end of 2013. The project is unique in that Range is offering off-plan Shariah-compliant timeshare units at the development.

“We found that Iraq offers a very favourable foreign investment environment, making it a lucrative market for investment. Thus finding a gap in luxury accommodation across all spectrums, we went ahead with this large development to cater to over 20m pilgrims who visit Karbala every year, and face acute shortage of residences,” Ali said.

By 2015 Range Hospitality aims to operate both 3-Star and 4-Star hotels in Najaf.