UAE: Sharjah To Add New 4m Sqft. Exhibition Centre

Sharjah is building a new 4 million square foot (370,000 sqm.) exhibition and conference centre in Al Tai district, near the intersection of Emirates Road and Mleiha Road. Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) revealed recently that next year’s Sharjah International Book Fair will move to the new venue in order to expand its area from 25,000 square metres (269,098 sq. ft.) to 60,000 square metres (645,835 sq. ft.).

With the opening of Expo Centre Sharjah in 1977, Sharjah established the very first fairs and exhibitions centre in the United Arab Emirates. The expo centre moved to its new location on Al Taawun Street in the centre of Sharjah city in 2002. The centre now has six exhibition halls surrounding a central boulevard, with a combined gross exhibition area of 26,000 square metres (279,862 sq. ft.) indoors, plus a further 6,000 square metres (64,583 sq. ft.) of outdoor space.

Al Tai district is currently in redevelopment, with Sharjah Islamic Bank’s real estate arm, Asas Real Estate, developing some 14 million square feet of residential plots in the Al Tai Residential Neighborhood owned by United Investment. The area will also have one of the largest mosques in Sharjah, currently being built in an Ottoman-inspired architectural style.

The new Al Tai exhibiton centre’s strategic location is about 30-40 minutes’ from Sharjah’s city centre, 25-30 minutes’ drive from Sharjah International Airport and about 35-40 minutes’ drive from Dubai International Airport.

Meanwhile, Basma Group Sharjah is building a new 200 room 4-star hotel, Novotel Sharjah Expo, adjacent to Expo Centre Sharjah. The new Novotel will have a business centre and two meeting halls including a large meeting-cum-function hall of approximately 200 square metres.

The Gulf region’s meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) market is estimated to be worth about US$1.3 billion (AED 4.8b) annually.

UAE: Accor Adds Pullman Brand To Sharjah Hotel Pipeline

Accor Hotels Middle East, one of the fastest growing hospitality groups in the Middle East, is expanding its footprint in Sharjah with the addition of a 188-room Pullman hotel, near to Expo Centre Sharjah. The group announced the new property after signing a number of new hotel management agreements with Sharjah-headquartered Manazil Group. Accor has previously announced plans for a Novotel Sharjah Expo and a 5-star Majlis Grand Mercure Sharjah luxury beachfront hotel and resort.

Construction of the Pullman Sharjah is expected to be completed by 2018 in the Al Taawun area of Sharjah city, close to Expo Centre Sharjah, Al Qasba and the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. There are over 80 Pullman hotels worldwide, typically located close to prime tourist destinations and city business districts.

The new Pullman property will offer 188 rooms and suites, three lounge-cafés, an all-day dining restaurant, a specialty restaurant, large meeting rooms, two health clubs, a spa, two indoor pools, one infinity indoor pool and a poolside juice bar.

The Accor group has already announced plans to open a new 4-star 200 room Novotel Sharjah Expo by the first quarter of 2017, adjacent to the international exhibition and conference centre. The new Novotel will offer standard rooms, club floor rooms, executive suites, a business centre and meeting facilities.

Meanwhile, Accor’s largest new Sharjah development in the pipeline is the US$100 million (AED 367m) art and culture themed Majlis Grand Mercure Sharjah, backed by Basma Group Sharjah and Khaled bin Alwaleed (KBW) Group. The new resort will occupy an area of around 12,000 square metres on the Sharjah Corniche and will offer 234 rooms in total, with Deluxe Sea View rooms, Deluxe Private Garden rooms and Suites. Scheduled for completion before 2018, the hotel expects to raise the bar for beachfront hotel accommodation in the city.

Sharjah’s Tourism Vision 2021 strategy plans to attract more than 10 million tourists to the emirate by year 2021. Sharjah already offers a wide range of hotel services and has a total of about 10,000 hotel rooms, with an estimated 4,000 additional hotel rooms becoming available during the next three years.