Dubai-based destination management company Alpha Tours and Paramount Hotels and resorts, the official licensee of Paramount Pictures, will set up a luxury resort on Italian Mediterranean island of Sardinia in partnership with a UAE businessman.

The five-star project would include 200 rooms and suites, restaurants, a spa, swimming pools and gardens, said a top official.

This is the first UAE private investment venture on Sardinia. The work on the new hotel will begin in early 2014, remarked Alpha Tours chief executive officer Ghassan Al Aridi.

The partners will sign the project agreement within the next few days, said Al Aridi in his comments to Abu Dhabi-based /hotelandrest.com/ website.

“The project will be designed in a way that will suit the taste and needs of tourists from the GCC, Russia, China, Japan, the US and other countries,” noted Al Aridi.

The island normally witnesses tourist rush from the Gulf and Europe between May and October, he added.

The Italian embassy in the UAE is supporting the project as part of its efforts to encourage Emirati investment in Sardinia.-TradeArabia News Service