Donald Trump is bringing his hospitality brand to the Maldives with the launch of a Saudi Arabia-backed hotel in the Indian Ocean paradise.
Trump International Hotel Maldives will be located 25 minutes by speedboat from Male, the island nation’s capital, and feature around 80 beach and overwater villas that it’s claimed will be “ultra luxurious.”
The only rendering released so far shows a chic overwater villa with a curved roof sitting in front of a huge, tear-shaped pool.
The project is in collaboration with Dar Global, the luxury property arm of Dar Al Arkan, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest real estate developers. The Trump Organization has around eight other projects in the pipeline with Dar Global, with locations that include Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.
The Maldives announcement comes as President Donald Trump prepares to meet with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Tuesday's visit will be the first White House visit by Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler in over seven years.
The crown prince, widely known by his initials MBS, hasn’t been to the U.S. since the 2018 killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, which caused a global uproar.
In a statement regarding the Maldives development, The Trump Organization said: “[The villas are] designed for discerning global travelers seeking the highest levels of privacy, exclusivity, and sophistication. The resort is set to open by the end of 2028.”
The resort will bring the number of hotels run by the Trump organization to 12. The company’s official “hotels” page currently lists 11 properties across the U.S., Scotland, Ireland, Oman, Dubai and Vietnam.
The Maldives hotel, unusually, will be developed using tokenization, a process involving a physical asset being turned into a digitally tradable unit.
In real estate, tokenization tends to be used for finished buildings.
Dar Global said in a statement: “This pioneering collaboration not only brings the Trump brand to one of the world's most exclusive destinations but also introduces an unprecedented financial innovation, tokenizing the development of a luxury hospitality project for the first time.
“Unlike previous models that tokenize completed assets, this initiative tokenizes the development phase itself, offering investors the opportunity to participate in a high-growth, premium real estate project from inception.”
Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization, commented: "We are delighted to bring the Trump brand to the Maldives in collaboration with Dar Global.
“This development will not only redefine luxury in the region but also set a new benchmark for innovation in real estate investment through tokenization."
Ziad El Chaar, CEO of Dar Global, added: "Dar Global continues to push boundaries, from developing world-class destinations to pioneering new investment structures.
“Tokenizing the development of Trump International Hotel Maldives marks a global first that blends luxury, innovation, and technology in a way that will transform how the world invests in hospitality."
How the Trump brand will be received in the Maldives, which tends to lean on apolitical brands, remains to be seen.
