ArabWeeks

Following new openings in Dubai, Beirut and Bahrain, McLaren Automotive, the British creator of luxury, high-performance sportscars and supercars, continues to expand its presence in the Middle East as part of its Track25 business plan, with the inauguration of a new retail facility in the city of Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

VIPs, officials and supercar enthusiasts from Riyadh and surrounding areas attended the official opening at Imall, Al Nakheel District. The brand-new sales facility offers over 600sqm of space to display seven cars in McLaren’s growing high-performance vehicle range, which encompasses the Sports, Super and Ultimate Series.

The dedicated McLaren showroom’s modern design features the brand’s latest visual identity and allows customers and fans to fully immerse themselves in the world of McLaren. A unique, custom-made graphic featuring Arabic calligraphy dominates the walls from the ground floor up to the mezzanine office level.

Visitors can enjoy a coffee bar and utilise the high-tech configuration lounge which gives customers the ability to design interior and exterior aspects of their McLaren visually on a 65” touch point screen. The retail experience is complemented by the neighbouring aftersales facility, offering clients professional technical service and assistance through McLaren trained service personnel.

“Saudi Arabia is an important market for McLaren and key to our success in the Middle East region. We are pleased to have Nahwasharq Co. Ltd. on board as a strong retail partner.”

Brett Soso, Managing Director of Middle East, Africa & Latin America for McLaren Automotive.

We are proud to represent McLaren Automotive in Saudi Arabia. With state-of-the-art facilities, a qualified service team and exceptional products, we are confident that we will deliver a professional and engaging customer experience that is representative of the McLaren brand.”

Elie Chahine Badr, CEO of Nahwasharq Co. Ltd

The showroom opening ceremony featured the unveiling of the McLaren Senna, the company’s ultimate road-legal track car. It was named after the legendary McLaren Formula 1 driver, Ayrton Senna who won all three of his World Championships at the wheel of a McLaren.

We are proud to announce the opening ceremony of the Turkish Night “Sultan Rayhaan” at ‘Flavours’ restaurant at Rosh Rayhaan by Rotana Hotel. ‘Flavours’ is considered one of the finest restaurants in Riyadh offering international cuisine and is the perfect place for business meetings, family gatherings and private dinners. On Monday evenings, you can enjoy a wide range of delicious Turkish dishes and delicacies in the unique atmosphere of ‘Sultan Rayhaan’ Turkish night under the supervision of the Turkish Chef ‘Hasan Korkmaz’ and his Turkish culinary team.

The Turkish Night is designed mainly to let Turkish food lovers enjoy a unique experience. The opening ceremony was held in the presence of the hotel General Manager ‘Mamdouh Ali’, His Excellency the Turkish Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ‘Mr. Erdoğan Kök’ and his spouse, a group of other ambassadors in Riyadh, media professionals and businessmen.

The ‘Sultan Rayhaan’ Turkish night is not like any ordinary dinner buffet,” said Mamdouh Ali, the hotel’s General Manager. “The Turkish food night is the first step to many other projects and surprises that will take place at the Rosh Rayhaan by Rotana Hotel.

It is noteworthy that Rosh Rayhaan Hotel has won the “Travelers’ Choice Award for 2019” from the famous Tripadvisor website.

The first Mandarin Oriental property in the Middle East, Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, will open its doors in the first quarter of 2019. Located in the heart of Dubai with pristine views of the beach, urban architecture and chic design, Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai is set to bring a new wave of luxury to the shores of Dubai.

Enhancing Dubai’s Jumeirah beachfront, the resort will feature 178 spacious rooms and 78 elegant suites, all just a stone’s throw from the water’s edge, like no other property in the city. Designed by acclaimed international designer Jeffrey Wilkes, the rooms were conceived as individual retreats on the Arabian Gulf, to evoke a sense of refined and relaxed elegance. Refreshingly contemporary and wonderfully comfortable, the bright blue and earthy colour palettes bring the outdoors in while instilling the rooms with a sense of calm.

A magnificent lobby will welcome guests on arrival with a forest of lights leading to the beach front. Fourteen bronze metal trees standing seven, eight and nine metres high – each with 900 lights – create a canopy of crystal and light that glisten and sparkle, just like the nearby ocean. The expansive space opens up onto an outdoor area comprising water features, walkways, stone bridges and teak decks creating a path to the shoreline.

Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai is also home to six unrivalled restaurants and bars, all of which are noteworthy additions to Dubai’s dining scene. Portuguese celebrity chef José Avillez – of two Michelin-starred restaurant Belcanto in Lisbon – will take diners on an authentic journey through Portugal with his vibrant menu at Tasca, while at Warayaki-style Japanese steakhouse Netsu, Australian-born chef Ross Shonhan will lead the way with authentic Japanese cuisine in a dramatic setting.

The resort will also be the home to The Bay, a brasserie-style ground-floor restaurant with show-kitchens and family-friendly menus; the relaxing and elegant Noor Lounge, which opens

around the clock, will serve guests a delightful assortment of teas, coffees and light refreshments, while The Mandarin Cake Shop is set to become a destination in its own right thanks to its freshly baked bespoke cakes, photogenic patisseries and authentic Arabic sweets. For those who prefer al fresco dining, Sun Vibe is a laidback spot to catch a bite poolside.

Guests of the Club Rooms and Suites will also enjoy access to the light and bright Club Lounge which boasts some of the best city views in town.

With a 2,000-square-metre spa and state-of-the-art gym, Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai is also set to make a splash in the city’s wellness and relaxation market. With nine treatment rooms featuring a VIP Royal Suite, heat and water experiences and a fitness centre, The Spa will be a welcoming oasis offering an unrivalled range of holistic rejuvenation and relaxation treatments. Guests will enjoy Mandarin Oriental’s legendary signature treatments such as Oriental Harmony, and locally-inspired experiences like the Nomadic Sensory, a rhythmic spa ritual that captures the spirit of Emirati Bedouin life, against the soundtrack of the beat of a Doumbek (Arabic goblet drum).

Finally, for younger Mandarin fans, Little Nomads kids’ club will help their imaginations run riot with a range of fun activities including a colourful treehouse for hours of entertainment.

About Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai

Located in one of Dubai’s most prestigious neighbourhoods, the resort’s elegant rooms and suites offer an abundance of space, combining contemporary décor with guest-centric technology and staggering views. Its restaurants and bars are equally enticing with six first-rate venues including two signature restaurants. Combined with a state-of-the-art destination spa spread over 2,000 square metres, a fitness centre and a kids’ club, Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai is the most exciting new addition to the region’s luxury hotel scene. Its unrivalled location with easy access to both Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport means that Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai is ideal for both business and leisure

travellers. It also holds the status of being the closest beachfront resort to both Downtown Dubai and the financial and business districts.

About Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is the award-winning owner and operator of some of the world’s most luxurious hotels, resorts and residences. Having grown from its Asian roots into a global brand, the Group now operates 30 hotels and six residences in 21 countries and territories, with each property reflecting the Group’s oriental heritage and unique sense of place. Mandarin Oriental has a strong pipeline of hotels and residences under development, and is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group.

Photography of Mandarin Oriental is available to download in the Photo Library of our Media section, at www.mandarinoriental.com.  Further information is also available on our Social Media channels.

Dur Hospitality has celebrated its achievements and revealed its ambitious strategy for future growth at a press conference staged during the second edition of the Saudi Arabia Hotel Investment Conference (SHIC), where the company was a platinum sponsor.

With the Kingdom confirming a 7% increase in spending close to SAR 1.106 trillion to boost private sector growth and create investment opportunities across multiple industries, and hospitality a major sector set to benefit, Dur Hospitality announced its growth plan for the coming years during the highly-successful event. The 300-plus hotel investors, owners, developers and operators in attendance gained insight into Dur Hospitality’s success story of more than four decades, with the company’s leaders and top executives outlining Dur Hospitality’s history, its 2018 achievements and its plans for 2019 and beyond.

Dur Hospitality currently has nine projects under construction, of which four will be completed and operational in 2019. This includes the development of Holiday Inn Jubail and Hotel Suites, the expansion of Riyadh Airport Marriott Hotel, the development of hotel apartments and expansion of the ballroom in Holiday Inn Tabuk Hotel and the launch of Marriott Hotel in the Diplomatic Quarter, Riyadh.

Development Plans

The company’s growth plans also include:

• Expanding the Makarem Hotels portfolio to 10,000 rooms by 2028;
• The development of the DARRAQ brand with the addition of 55 luxurious residential units in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter by 2019;
• The launch of ‘Karam for Umrah Services’ a new subsidiary to support the development of the ‘Makarem Hotels’ brand and its expanding inventory in the Holy Cities, as well as the growing number of religious tourists visiting both.

Recent Achievements

The company also outlined recent achievements in partnership with Marriott and IHG, including: the opening of the Marriott Riyadh Diplomatic Quarter in time for SHIC; the rebranding of Riyadh Palace into Crowne Plaza Riyadh Palace Hotel in May 2018, which is now undergoing a major refurbishment; and the full renovation and rebranding of Riyadh airport hotel into Marriott Airport Hotel.

“All of these business successes are testament to Dur Hospitality’s 42 years of unrivalled market expertise and experience, which has seen us identify opportunities to develop new hospitality concepts such as Makarem Hotels and forge strong partnerships with Marriott and IHG to open properties in high-growth markets where branded properties are in strong demand,” explained Dr Badr Al Badr, CEO of Dur Hospitality.

“In 2018, we made significant in-roads into developing our portfolio of properties, in line with our commitment to Vision 2030, providing the hospitality concepts required to meet the project demand in religious and non-religious tourism this blueprint for socio-economic transformation will generate”, he added.

New partnerships

On the side-lines of the conference, Dur Hospitality announced two recent official signings – an agreement with owner Mr. Abed Al Qurashi to manage the Makarem Jabal Al Kaaba Hotel in Makkah and a landmark acquisition deal with SHADA Homes, which will see Dur make its foray in the serviced/long-stay apartment sector soon.

Mr. Hassan Ahdab, President Hotel Operations, Dur Hospitality, revealed that this marks another milestone in Dur’s plan to develop 10 new projects over the next five years and to grow Makarem’s pipeline to 10,000 keys by 2028.”

It is worth mentioning that the company currently operates more than 20 properties and 3,047 rooms, with assets under management worth more than SAR2.6 billion. Additionally, it has 22 projects at different stages in the pipeline, most of which are scheduled for delivery between now and 2020, thus doubling the value of the company’s portfolio value to SAR 2.4 billion.

HONOR, a leading smartphone e-brand, has launched its latest flagship smartphone, HONOR View20, for the KSA market. The launch highlighted five world first features of the new HONOR View20 that include: 48MP Camera + TOF 3D Camera, 25MP In-screen front camera with a narrowest 4.5mm opening, 7nm SOC Kirin 980 AI Chipset, Aurora Nano-texture design and the Dual NPU which supports the AI Triple-Antenna Wi-Fi technology. The device was unveiled last week on January 22^nd, 2019 in Paris.

Mr. Chris Sunbaigong, President, HONOR, MEA, said: “The HONOR View20 is a revolution in smartphone technology. It has already been acknowledged for its engineering, with numerous awards and positive reviews. Our Middle East consumers can expect groundbreaking technology coupled with industry-best performance. Middle East is known for its dynamism and sophistication and with this device we bring a stunning state of the art design that truly represents the HONOR brand.”

He added: “Our collaboration with word class iconic Italian luxury fashion brand MOSCHINO is further proof of our commitment to provide the very best to our fans. We are confident our consumers will embrace this new exclusive line.”

With 170% year-on-year (YoY) growth in overseas markets in 2018, HONOR has made significant strides towards its goal of becoming a “Top-5” global smartphone brand. At the global launch in Paris, HONOR has also announced upgrades to its brand image, with a new moving color logo, new “HONOR MY WORLD” slogan, and new mission of creating an intelligent world that belongs to young people. In this way, HONOR will continue to offer a stylish all-scenario experience to youth across the globe in every area of their lives and to set trends of pioneer culture and modern life style.

Unrivaled in smartphone photography

HONOR View20’s rear camera is the first to be powered by the SONY IMX586 48MP sensor, with a 1/2-inch large CMOS, and equivalent 1.6μm pixels in Quad Bayer array. The sensor, boosted by the Kirin 980 chipset, supports new 48MP AI Ultra Clarity mode to produce photos with unmatched detail and clarity.

The camera takes several 48MP pictures at once and collates the best details from each photo to create one 48MP picture. The Kirin 980’s Dual-NPU processes the photo using an advanced AI algorithm – the quality of the photo is assessed, details in dark areas are optimized, and colors are adjusted to appear more vivid.

HONOR has partnered with National Geographic to illustrate the beautiful photos made possible by this unrivaled technology. After experimenting with the new 48MP camera, National Geographic photographer Robbie Shone said, “I appreciate HONOR View20’s superb clarity and telescopic zoom, which allow you to take exceptionally detailed photographs even from a distance. This smartphone can capture some of the most vibrant and precious of life’s moments in new, inspiring and exciting ways.”

Another rear camera, the 3D Camera is capable of creating a new dimension in photography and videography, and brings greater usability and fun. The 3D Camera collects information on the shapes of objects based upon the time-of-flight of light signals to enable depth sensing, skeletal tracking and real-time motion capture. This camera can turn HONOR View20 into a motion-controlled gaming console, allowing you to play 3D motion games like never before. Now, it supports Fancy Skiing and Fancy Darts.

New dimension in design

HONOR View20’s stunning design starts with the advanced in-screen front camera design. The innovative All-View Display with a front-facing 25MP Camera provides a notch-less viewing experience and an outstanding 91.8% screen-to-touch panel ratio. HONOR engineers use advanced holder with buffer design to precisely place the front camera under an ultra-small 4.5mm transparent hole created by advanced lithography processes. HONOR View20 surpasses competing in-screen cameras — maintaining the structure and strength of the display, while ensuring better usability and photo quality.

HONOR View20 is also the first smartphone to use nanolithography to create a Nano-texture – a vivid and dynamic V-shape color gradient with gleaming effect on the body. The smartphone’s integrated 3D curved body with an elegant arc design is only 8.1mm thick and consists of a perfect blend of metal and glass texture. The state-of-the-art design is an edgy interpretation of the HONOR brand.

Marking the launch of its new top-of-the-line flagship smartphone, HONOR collaborated with iconic Italian luxury fashion brand Moschino to create an exclusive range of products, including a co-designed Moschino HONOR View20, an embossed phone-cases featuring the iconic Moschino Teddy Bear and specially designed accessories: the perfect fashion-statement for the ultimate phone fashionistas. Gabriele Maggio, CEO of Moschino, participated at the Paris launch to share key insights into the importance of design.

Extreme performance with latest technologies in mind

In celebration of the launch of the HONOR View20, HONOR is collaborating with Epic Games to push the mobile gaming experience of Fortnite to the next level. As part of this collaboration, owners of the HONOR View20 will have exclusive access to the HONOR GUARD outfit in Fortnite.

HONOR View20 possesses next-gen features: 7nm Kirin 980 AI Chipset with intelligent Dual-NPU; The Liquid Cooling System that can effectively dissipate heat for better performance; The AI Triple-antenna Wi-Fi technology prevents the signal from weakening when a user’s hands cover the receiver; a 4,000 mAh battery for long-lasting and uninterrupted gaming; and large internal memory.

A leap into intelligent living

HONOR View20 comes with innovative AI capabilities which bring a customized, easy-to-use experiences. HONOR View20’s 3D Camera and AI capability are capable of identifying over 100 kinds of food and provide calorie information to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. The AI object identify can also identify over 300 famous landmarks and 100,000 paintings from around the world.

HONOR advancing forward

HONOR View20 is available for purchase in Saudi Arabia at a price point of SAR 2299. At select retailers including Jarir, Extra, and in other phone shops on 29^th Jan 2019.

The smartphone is available in four colors: Sapphire Blue, MOSCHINO co-designed (Phantom Blue and Phantom Red).

HONOR will also launch HONOR 8X Max in Saudi Arabia which is the enlarged version of HONOR’s hero product HONOR 8X. It comes with a 7.12-inch large screen, 5000mAh battery, 128GB big memory, and only with a price of1099 SAR.

HONOR 8X Max will be on sale exclusively at Jarir bookstore on 31st Jan.

For more information, please visit https://www.hihonor.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/honorarabia

INS: https://www.instagram.com/honorarabia/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Honorarabia

YT: http://youtube.com/honorarabia

The fifth-edition of Shop Bahrain, the largest event in the Kingdom, held between 1st January until 2nd February 2019 kicked-off the at the start of the new year with a number of fun-filled activities held across participating shopping malls.

Shop Bahrain mirrors the Kingdom’s position as an accessible family destination, renowned for its close proximity to the Gulf countries with easy access through the King Fahad Causeway and the Bahrain International Airport.

The fifth edition of the Festival aims to stimulate the national economy by focusing on retail and tourism sectors. The transactions recorded in the last edition reached a total of BD19 million with over 137,150 registered shoppers in the loyalty system from Bahrain and other countries. The Festival created more than 300 opportunities for Bahraini youth and over 80,000 prizes were given to winners throughout the Festival.

This year’s edition will feature 11 cars and more than 73,000 prizes including, 5,000 discounted airline tickets from Gulf Air, electronics from A.A. Bin Hindi Group, thousands of instant prizes from VIVA and much more. Shoppers can enter the Festival’s loyalty system

when spending at participating malls and hotels in order to win from a wide range of prizes.

The Festival City, Shop Bahrain’s main attraction, will be launched on the 17th of January at the Bahrain International Circuit, the Festival City partner. The Festival City will include a number of family-oriented activities including live performances and carnival games, an outdoor market and cinema. It will also feature a daily lineup of live musical local bands for visitors to enjoy.

This edition of the Festival is organized by the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) in cooperation with a number of strategic partners including Tamkeen, VIVA Bahrain and the national carrier of Bahrain, Gulf Air, as well as the A.A. Bin Hindi Group. The Platinum Partners include Bin Hindi Informatics and Lulu Group. Prize partners include Gravity, Adhari, Awal Gas, Hawar Beach Hotel, Kitchen for Life Company, the Ice Cream Shop and Rahim Holdings.

The Loyalty System enables shoppers to enter the raffle draw and get the opportunity to win valuable prizes. For every BD 10 and above receipts, shoppers can redeem their points through the festival kiosks located across participating malls and hotels as  well as the Festival City, or via the Shop Bahrain app. With every BD 50 spent, shoppers will be eligible to win instant prizes.

Shoppers and visitors can learn more about “Shop Bahrain” through the website: www.shopbahrain.com or through the account @shopbahrain on the social networking channels Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Whatsapp. Most recent updates and news about the Festival are also available on the Shop Bahrain Application released for iOS and Android.