Emaar Hospitality, a unit of Dubai's biggest listed developer, is eyeing 20 European cities for new hotels and planning to enter sub-saharan Africa as part of its international expansion push, its chief executive said.

The expansion push will be a combination of both managing and building hotels, with the majority of projects skewed towards management, Mr Harnisch said.

The hotels arm of developer Emaar Properties has identified first-tier European cities, including London, Paris, Rome and Munich, as growth opportunities, Olivier Harnisch said at a press conference at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. The company will “soon” announce its plans for sub-Saharan Africa and is exploring plans for hotels in Muscat and Salalah in Oman, he added.

Emaar Hospitality has a pipeline of 35 projects in the Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey and the Maldives, bringing the total number of destinations in which it operates to 58 markets, he said.

The expansion push will be a combination of both managing and building hotels, with the majority of projects skewed towards management, Mr Harnisch said. Most of the projects will be funded either by Emaar Capital or through joint ventures with real estate companies and funds.

The company, which operates hotels including The Address and Rove, has not seen any impact from VAT introduced in the UAE in January, Mr Harnisch said.