Maad Hospitality Towers. This is the name of the largest hotel complex in Mecca: 21 towers, each 45 floors high, 11,000 rooms, in addition to a shopping center, a mosque and a conference center. It is the Saudi holding company Maad International which is behind this gigantic project. And the linchpin of this project is none other than the Moroccan Abdellah Essonni who is Chief Hospitality Officer at Maad Hospitality Towers.
The first phase of the complex will be delivered before the end of 2017, he tells us, with some 4,000 rooms and the rest will follow in two consecutive phases by 2022.
Business card
Abdellah Essonni was born in Casablanca in 1961. Laureate of ISIT, he began his career in 1983 at the Ministry of Tourism within the regional planning division, before heading to the USA where he contributed to the opening of the Moroccan pavilion at Disney World in Florida. He was subsequently admitted to a professional development program in hotel management at Cornell University, New York, followed by an operational internship at the Marriott Marquis mega-resort in Manhattan. In 1992, he joined the Hyatt chain, first in Rabat then in Baku and later in Muscat.
After 8 years at Hyatt International, he was entrusted with general management of the hotel division of the Saudi group ALJ in Mecca. Abdellah will since remain in the Gulf countries with groups such as Jumeirah (Burj Al Arab) in Dubai, Four Seasons in Riyadh and Kempinski Mall of the Emirates.
In 2007, he joined Sama Dubai, a subsidiary of the Emirati group Dubai Holding, as an advisor to the investment committee in tourism and hotels.
In 2010, he made his big return to Casablanca where he was Managing Director Asset Management at Actif Invest, an investment fund management company specializing in tourism and real estate development. Two years later, he returned to Dubai to take up the position of CEO at Abjar Hotels, which owns around ten renowned hotel establishments such as the Ritz-Carlton JBR and the Sheraton Dubai Creek.
Abdellah will stay with Abjar for five years before accepting his current role as Chief Hospitality Officer at Maad International. This Moroccan is also a member of the advisory committee of AHIC (Arabian Hotel Investment Conference), the reference conference in terms of investment tourist.
source: l’observer
