Soneva Founder and CEO, Sonu Shivdasani, is set to headline the upcoming AHICE Maldives Hotel Investment Summit, set to take place at Crossroads Maldives on Wednesday, August 7.

The launch of the AHICE Maldives Hotel Investment Summit follows on the footsteps of the highly-successful AHICE Fiji Islands Investment in Tourism Summit, held at Sofitel Fiji Beach Resort and Spa last week (July 3-4) in front of over 350 industry executives.

The AHICE Maldives Hotel Investment Summit, hosted by HM and Founding Partner JLL, is expected to be held in front of a crowd of over 150 for the event’s launch and will have panels and Q&A sessions focused on investment, operations and development across the Maldives, which is firmly one of the world’s most in demand nations for new hotels and existing assets.

Headling the speaker program is Shivdasani, who opened his first resort Soneva Fushi, in 1995 with wife Eva.

In the same year that Soneva Fushi welcomed its first guests, Sonu and Eva also launched Six Senses Resorts and Spas, followed by the Evason hotels group in 1997, with properties across Southeast Asia and Europe.

By 2011, Six Senses had become a globally recognised luxury spa and resorts chain, with 26 resorts and 41 spas.

The management contracts for both companies were sold in 2012 as part of Sonu and Eva’s ‘One Owner, One Operator, One Philosophy’ strategy under Soneva.

Alongside Shivdasani, other key speakers include the Maldives Minister for Tourism, Ibrahim Faisal, JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group CEO Asia-Pacific, Nihat Ercan, Prospect Hotel Advisors Partner and Asset Manager, Rohan Gopaldas, Ares Asia Managing Director Kieran Bestall, THSA Managing Director, Rodger Powell and Outrigger Hospitality Group President, Jeff Wagoner, who is flying in from Honolulu, Hawaii, to speak at the event.

“We are excited to be expanding out AHICE brand to the Maldives and hosting an event that will boost hotel investment and tourism to the nation,” said AHICE Global Conferences Group President, James Wilkinson.

“The Maldives is high on the list for hotel investment from investors across the globe and we are excited to be launching our all-new event with so many high-calibre speakers.”

The event will also include a number of networking events, site tours of hotels and property showcases.

The AHICE Maldives Hotel Investment Summit is the sixth global event for the group, with the AHICE Far East Asia Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition launching on Sep 5 at the Tokyo Edition – Toranomon, taking the Asia-Pacific list of events to seven and close to 4,000 delegates across the portfolio.

A limited number of tickets are on sale for the AHICE Maldives Hotel Investment Summit and they can be reserved here.

For any sponsorship and ticket package requests, contact James Wilkinson on jwilkinson@intermedia.com.au