(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Luxury resorts and hotel chain Amanresorts is likely to open its first Middle East property in Oman. Amanresorts has set its sight on a remote coastal town of Shuwaimiya, located approximately 320km northeast of Salalah, for a one-of-its-kind eco-resort.
Kuwait's United Real Estate Company (URC), which opened its Salalah Gardens Mall in Salalah earlier this month, is the developer of the property.
Known as Junoot Eco-resort, URC is currently exploring number of ways that one can take to get to the site, which will also become part of the guests' experience.
Renimah al Mattar, executive vice president, URC, in an interview to a business magazine was quoted as saying, ''The master development will include a number of components. One will be chalets that will be sold to the end users, and that includes expats. So you don't have to be a Gulf national. And one of the hotel components that we've just announced will be operated by Amanresorts, and that will be the first Amanresort in the Gulf region.''
Amanresorts owns and manages 26 small luxury resorts and hotels worldwide known for offering an intimate and discreet experience, with each resort in a unique and natural setting, and a small number of rooms to ensure exclusivity and privacy.
In reply to Muscat Daily's question, Francesca von Etzdorf, media manager, Amanresorts, didn't deny Amanresorts' foray into Oman. She said, ''While we do have many projects in the planning stages around the world, we do not, at this time, have any information available for public release."
Tariq Mohammad Abdulsalam, URC chairman, during the Salalah Garden Malls launch had said, ''We are in the process of starting a project in the coastal state of Shuwaimiya, which will attract tourists from all over the world.''
The design and development of the Junoot project has already received rave reviews and awards from leading world authorities.
It has won the prestigious ‘Future Projects - Leisure Led Development' Award at the World Architecture Festival in 2012, as well as the ‘Special Judges' Recognition' from the 2013 MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards.
The masterplan for Junoot is to develop the site into an attractive destination with chalets to rent or own.
The vision for Junoot is to offer visitors and residents an eco-friendly, sustainable and socially conscious development that preserves Omani culture.
Inspired by Nader Khalili's Superadobe and Ceramic houses, using freely available material of earth, the design and development approach have been to integrate construction methodologies from institutions like the Cal-Earth Institute of Earth Art and Architecture, which Khalili founded.
Conceptualised around sustainable and ecological values, Junoot came to life in May 2012, when two single prototypes were completed on a plot surrounded by mountains facing the Indian Ocean.
The project uses local earth as building material, simple earth architecture techniques, and introduces solar panel technology to create eco-friendly structu
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