DUBAI, UAE— More than 1,500 new five-star hotel rooms are slated to be open here by Sept. 2003 in time for the city to meet its requirements for the estimated 16,000 visitors expected to arrive for the 58th Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The logistics for accommodating so many guests from around the world is being coordinated by a specially created Accommodation Committee, one of ten specialist committees set up by an organization titled “Dubai 2003,” which is handling this complex event. Major new hotel developments include the Grand Hyatt in Garhoud that will have 674 new rooms, the Shangri-La on Sheikh Zayed Road with 301 rooms, and the Novotel and Ibis hotels that are being developed next to the new convention center that will host the meetings. These two hotels will create 412 and 210 new rooms respectively. Other new developments include the Fairmont Dubai and the Taj Palace Hotel Dubai. They join existing luxury properties such as: the Le Royal Meriden Bahrain; the Emirates Towers Hotel Dubai; the JW Marriott; the Le Meridien Dubai; the Inter-Continental; and the Ritz-Carlton. The additional rooms from these hotels will mean that Dubai will have sufficient hotel rooms to handle the representatives and visitors from 184 countries who will be coming to the United Arab Emirates for the event. The Accommodation Committee has already ensured that block bookings have been undertaken at every major hotel in Dubai to ensure availability for the delegations. Final arrangements to decide on which delegation will be allocated to which hotel will be made in coordination with representatives of the Joint Secretariat of the World Bank and IMF.
