30/03/2026 03:00 AST
Executives announced at the Future Investment Initiative annual conference in Miami on Thursday the launch of AYARA, a hospitality platform and business partnership that plans to develop a network of 50 international, brand-name business hotels across Saudi Arabia by 2029.
The $1 billion deal was signed by Patel Family Office, a US investment enterprise based in Dallas, Texas, and Abdel Hadi A. Al-Qahtani and Sons, a Saudi industrial conglomerate, who said they expect the project to help strengthen the Kingdom's continuing economic growth.
"As Saudi Arabia opens its doors to the world, its tourism and infrastructure expansion is attracting increasing global attention," said Lakshmi Narayanan, Patel Family Office's vice chairperson and managing partner, in a joint statement issued by the companies at the FII event.
"The Kingdom's transformation is creating a new category of demand for reliable, practical and standardized business hospitality.
"Platforms like AYARA, combining global expertise with local execution, will play a critical role in meeting that demand. AYARA is positioned to become a foundational hospitality infrastructure platform supporting Saudi Arabia's next phase of economic growth."
Abdulmalik Tariq Al-Qahtani, the CEO of Abdel Hadi A. Al-Qahtani and Sons, and chairperson of its affiliated company ATQ Hospitality Group, said: "It requires new partnerships and new approaches to deliver economic transformation at the unprecedented scale we are seeing in Saudi Arabia.
"By integrating construction, procurement and hotel operations in the AYARA platform, we are establishing a new standard for development speed and efficiency."
The FII's chairperson and acting CEO, Richard Attias, spoke of partnerships such as the one behind AYARA during his opening remarks on Thursday, day two of the three-day conference, which included a full day of panel discussions and networking meetings.
"Gatherings like this one are not a luxury," Attias said of the event. "They are a necessity because progress doesn't happen in isolation; it happens when people come together, when ideas meet, when perspectives are shared and when leaders choose to engage.
"We create possibility. History reminds us that the most meaningful breakthroughs - economic, social and human - have always started with dialogue, with the courage to sit at the table, to listen, to challenge, and to build together what none of us can achieve alone.
"This is exactly why FII exists, not as another conference but as a platform: a platform where ideas move, where capital connects, where decisions are shaped and where the future is not just discussed, but designed."
Officials said the AYARA platform will serve corporate travelers, project teams, consultants and regional headquarters across Saudi Arabia. It will feature modular construction, in-house furniture and fixtures manufacturing, and hospitality management to enable faster deliveries and cost efficiencies.
By 2029, the platform expects to deliver between 5,000 and 7,000 rooms across key economic corridors including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and emerging development zones such as Neom and the Red Sea region.
Arab News
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