Collective Trojena will offer endless views over the mountain district of Saudi Arabia's Neom. Photo: Collective Retreats
Collective Trojena will offer endless views over the mountain district of Saudi Arabia's Neom. Photo: Collective Retreats
Collective Trojena will offer endless views over the mountain district of Saudi Arabia's Neom. Photo: Collective Retreats
Collective Trojena will offer endless views over the mountain district of Saudi Arabia's Neom. Photo: Collective Retreats

Glamping eco-resort Collective Trojena to open in Saudi Arabia’s Neom


Hayley Skirka
  • English
  • Arabic

Saudi Arabia’s Neom is unfolding at rapid pace, with a host of new developments and projects unfolding at the world's first cognitive, smart city.

And in the city’s Trojena — Neom’s snowcapped mountain district — the first glamping eco-retreat has been announced.

Collective Trojena will welcome guests for nature-laden stays from 2026.

Managed by Collective Retreats, a US outdoor experiential hospitality company, the new ultra-sustainable property will offer travellers access to Trojena’s outdoor beauty at its mountain location only 50km from the Gulf of Aqaba.

It will have 60 open-air guest rooms as well as innovative meeting spaces, dramatic water features, communal campfires and culinary experiences.

Collective Trojena will also have direct access to the development’s year-round outdoor activities, which will include skiing and snowboarding, high-altitude training, paragliding, mountain biking, hiking and water sports.

The man-made lake at Trojena in Neom, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Collective Retreats
The man-made lake at Trojena in Neom, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Collective Retreats

Guests staying at the retreat will be able to take part in a host of culturally themed events centred on film, art, music and food.

"We founded Collective Retreats with the singular goal of changing the way people travel," said Collective Retreats chief executive Peter Mack. "We want travellers to see the world with renewed curiosity and a greater appreciation for conservation of the extraordinary natural beauty that surrounds us."

"Trojena provides the ultimate backdrop to achieve this mission in ways we never imagined. In addition to giving a global audience a new perspective on this spectacular mountain setting, we are committed to demonstrating that luxury travel should not be extractive and it's possible to both preserve the environment and deliver extraordinary guest experiences."

The new resort in Saudi Arabia is the brand’s first foray in the Middle East, joining nature-centric Collective Retreats in Colorado, Texas and New York.

Set within Neom, Trojena is championing sustainability by powering the mountain destination with a combination of solar and wind energy, while developing technology in water desalination and brine processing to achieve zero waste.

Philip Gullett, executive director at Trojena, said: “Collective Retreats will be outstanding stewards of this new outdoor retreat experience in Trojena and will perfectly complement the environmental and sustainability principles and practices that are at the core of the Neom project.”

Last month, plans for a futuristic Yotel hotel with space-saving smart beds and the brand's signature robot concierge were announced for Neom’s Oxagon district. A luxury hotel, The Chedi Trojena, is also headed to Neom.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Updated: February 23, 2023, 9:00 AM