In the lead up to Future Hospitality Summit – FHS World in Dubai later this month, we hosted a closed-door investor briefing in London in partnership with Colliers. The event, which was attended by over 35 investors from a wide range of investment firms including Candy Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Morgan Stanley, Kingdom Holding, Omnam Investment Group, JL Equity Group, CapitaLand, Schroders Capital, JamesTown Europe and Zetland Capital, featured a presentation from Colliers on the latest investment trends as well as an expert panel discussion that shed light on the key developments that are defining the future of hospitality investment. The event was concluded with a networking reception and curated dinner.

Topics discussed during the briefing included geopolitical events and shifts in capital allocations, as well as the AI-driven equity boom and its impact on real estate investment. Insights included that in the first half of 2025 alone, fundraising for data centers accounted for 35% of all real estate fundraising - a figure triple the five-year average. This influx, which is creating powerful shifts in the investment landscape is accounting for an enormous share of market capitalisation.

In addition, the discussion focused on the strategic maturation of Middle Eastern investment, home of FHS World, including major sovereign wealth funds pivoting to a more sophisticated strategy of making large-scale, indirect investments to gain entity-level exposure and system-level influence.

The conversation also included the post Covid boom with income returns in the hospitality sector, measured by Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR), having significantly outperformed other commercial real estate classes like office, industrial, and retail over the past three years, making hotels the asset of choice for many investors. However, participants noted that the latest data may signal a turning point with the hotel sector’s share of total investment activity starting to flatten out, and the explosive, broad-based recovery in international arrivals from key source markets like the Americas and Europe also leveling out.

Attendees discussed that the focus must now shift to finding new, targeted avenues for growth. The key challenge lies in capturing specific, high-potential source markets. While arrivals from some markets have normalised, others have yet to recover to 2019 levels, future performance will depend not on riding a general wave of recovery, but on strategically attracting the next wave of global travellers.

A New Investment Map

These trends are not isolated; they are the gears of a new global investment machine, one powered by tech wealth, guided by a new calculus of geopolitical risk, and increasingly skeptical of old certainties. The AI wealth effect, evolving Middle Eastern strategies, and the normalisation of hospitality all paint a clear picture of a market that is more complex and

dynamic than ever before. As these powerful undercurrents reshape the investment landscape, are we simply witnessing a temporary market shift, or a fundamental rewriting of the rules for the decade to come?

These are the conversations that define Future Hospitality Summit (FHS) World, taking place from 27-29 October 2025 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. As the region’s premier hospitality investment platform, FHS brings together the global hospitality investment community to navigate these challenges and opportunities. Over the past year FHS events in Riyadh, Dubai and Cape Town welcomed 3,000 delegates, with 24% being investors, and facilitated an estimated $3 billion in deals. With dedicated platforms like the Branded Residence Forum, FHS is where the industry converges to shape its future.