Dubai hotel group signs deal for new Cotai development

Dubai hotel group Jumeirah is set to develop a luxury hotel in Macau.

The group is behind some of the most high-profile hotels in the world, including the Burj Al Arab, the Jumeirah Beach hotel and the Jumeirah Emirates Towers.

Now the firm has signed a development agreement with Shun Tak Holdings to build a five-star hotel in the Cotai area of the former Portuguese colony.

The hotel is due to open in 2013 but details about the design and cost have not yet been thrashed out. It will also require government approval.

Gerald Lawless, executive chairman of Jumeirah, said that the hotel, to be called the Jumeirah Macau, would be the firm's third project in China. It is due to open hotels in Shanghai next year and at Guangzhou two years later.

Macau has been hit by a drop in tourism in the wake of the economic downturn, which has seen two other hotel groups – Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the firm behind the Venetian hotel in the city built by Bovis Lend Lease, and local firm Galaxy Entertainment – put the brakes on similar projects planned for the Cotai strip.