Accor’s Fairmont relocates global headquarters to Dubai

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts has relocated its global headquarters from Paris to Dubai.

Mark Willis, former Accor CEO for the Middle East, Africa, India and Türkiye, is now the CEO for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

It follows an internal reorganisation within parent company Accor last year. It resulted in the creation of two divisions of hotel brands: a premium, midscale and economy division as well as a luxury and lifestyle division.

The latter comprises a further sub-division of maisons to manage the brands within it. A maison in Paris is tasked with the global development of brands including Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, MGallery and Emblems. The Dubai maison is now handed charge of Fairmont’s worldwide properties. The London maison manages Ennismore brands including Mama Shelter, Tribe and 21c, while a fourth maison in New York handles the worldwide portfolio of Orient Express and Raffles.

Read: Ennismore: Focused on curating unique lifestyle experiences

Fairmont has 90 active properties across more than 30 countries, including the likes of Fairmont San Francisco, The Plaza in New York, The Savoy in London, Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai, and Fairmont The Palm in Dubai.

Accor said that the decision to relocate the global headquarters of Fairmont to Dubai as opposed to other major cities worldwide was because of the city’s “strong position as a global hub; strategic proximity to Europe, Asia, and Africa allowing for easy access to a large portion of the world; and the city’s ability to attract top talent, brands, companies and investors.”

Fairmont has a pipeline of more than 30 hotels around the world, with upcoming openings extending from the Red Sea to Bangkok, La Paz Mexico to Prague. With nearly 40 percent of its current development projects located in IMEAT (India, Middle East, Africa and Türkiye) region, Accor says that the relocation to Dubai allows Fairmont to take advantage of the opportunities within the region.

With one eye on its expansion, Accor added that Fairmont is monitoring developments in key locations where it doesn’t currently have a presence such as Miami, Jeddah, Bali, and Paris.

Accor acquired Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel organization (FRHI) in 2016. At the time of its acquisition Fairmont’s headquarters were moved from Toronto to Paris. Accor currently has a portfolio of over 5,400 properties worldwide.

This article originally appeared on Business Traveller Middle East