Business
InterContinental Hotels Group acquires luxury hotel operator Six Senses for $300 mln
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has acquired Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, in a bid to increase the world-leading hotel company’s luxury brands portfolio.
IHG purchased the award-winning hospitality and wellness company from private equity fund Pegasus Capital Advisors for USD 300 million. The sale includes the management of 16 hotels and resorts, 37 spas and sister companies Evason and Raison d’Etre.
Six Senses joins a growing number of luxury brands in the IHG family, including world’s largest luxury hotel brand InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, recently acquired Regent Hotels & Resorts, and pioneer of boutique hotels in the US Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants.
Across IHG’s four leading luxury brands, guests can now enjoy nearly 300 luxury hotels around the world, with more than 100 set to open in the coming years.
“IHG’s growing portfolio of luxury brands is a collection of the very best in the travel industry. Each one offers something unique to our guests, and together they offer an unparalleled choice of locations and experiences. We’re incredibly proud to welcome Six Senses into our family of brands and look forward to opening more stunning hotels, resorts and spas – each one staying true to Six Senses’ world-renowned reputation for wellness and an unwavering commitment to purposeful travel,” Keith Barr, CEO of IHG, was quoted in a statement, as saying.
Six Senses is renowned for its focus on wellness and sustainability, with each hotel and resort set in locations of incredible natural beauty that will stop you in your tracks, delivering an uncompromising level of service that will stay with you long after you have left. All of which has been recognised through a host of industry awards and accolades, including Travel+Leisure (World Best Award, Top Hotel Brand for two years in a row), TIME Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler and Skift to name a few.
Featuring properties in 12 countries, Six Senses is behind some of the world’s most enticing hotels, resorts and spas, including a 19th-century wine estate in the Douro Valley (Portugal), a breathtaking island resort in the Seychelles, beach-side retreats in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Oman, a city escape in Singapore, and residences in the mountains of Courchevel (France).
In the Maldives, Six Senses runs the award-winning Six Senses Laamu resort — the only resort in the pristine Laamu atoll. Surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the resort prides itself on its commitment to sustainable operations and development as outlined by Agenda 21 and Green Globe Benchmarking.
As part of the IHG family, Six Senses is expected to expand to 60 properties within the next 10 years. This includes incredible new Six Senses hotels and resorts from a restored 14th-century fort in Rajasthan, to villas on a private island in Cambodia, and the brand’s first hotel in North America — a contemporary duo of twisting towers designed by Bjarke Ingles near the High Line in Manhattan’s West Chelsea.
Core to every Six Senses hotel and resort is a Six Senses Spa, where guests can relax, reconnect, and completely refresh. Guests are guided on a personal path to finding harmony and balance, to ensure positive and lasting benefits. Unique to the hospitality sector, Six Senses has also taken wellness out of the spa and integrated it across the entire stay, helping guests learn something new and reconnect with themselves, others, and the world around them.
“This is an exciting new era for Six Senses, IHG believes in our purpose to merge the two platforms of wellness and sustainability to promote personal health, and the health of the planet. Joining forces with IHG means we can use a wealth of systems and operational excellence to grow our brand and reach new markets without losing our quirky personality and playful touch,” Neil Jacobs, CEO of Six Senses, said.
In the near future, guests will be able to book their Six Senses stay through IHG’s booking platforms, such as the ihg.com website and the company’s leading mobile app, and benefit from the advantages of the IHG Rewards Club loyalty programme.
With 15 of the world’s leading hotel brands and more than 5,500 hotels around the world, IHG offers travellers and members of its global loyalty programme IHG Rewards Club, a hotel stay for all travel occasions.
Business
Feydhoo Hall opens at dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives as new event space
Dusit International, one of Thailand’s leading hotel and property development companies, has announced the opening of Feydhoo Hall, a landmark event venue at dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives, redefining the possibilities for meetings, celebrations, and destination events in the Maldives.
Designed to bring scale, flexibility, and creativity to island gatherings, Feydhoo Hall represents a bold step forward in positioning the Maldives as a dynamic destination for conferences, weddings, and large-scale social occasions.
Feydhoo Hall offers a versatile event complex designed to accommodate a wide range of gatherings, from corporate meetings and conferences to weddings and social celebrations.

At its core is the 390 sqm Main Hall, capable of hosting:
- Up to 300 guests in theatre-style setup
- Up to 240 guests for dining and banquet-style events
- Up to 200 guests for cocktail-style receptions
- Up to 144 guests in cluster-round configuration
Enhancing the flexibility of the venue are additional dedicated spaces, including:
- A 110 sqm Veranda Terrace, ideal for welcome receptions, breakout sessions, and pre-event gatherings, accommodating up to 100 guests for cocktail-style events.
- A spacious 1,000 sqm Lawn Space, perfect for large-scale outdoor celebrations, destination weddings, and open-air events, accommodating up to 400 guests for cocktail receptions and up to 350 guests for dining setups.
- The 55 sqm Ekugai Meeting Room, designed for smaller meetings and executive sessions, accommodating up to 30 guests in theatre or dining setup and 24 guests in cluster-round format.
Together, these integrated spaces create a seamless indoor-outdoor event experience, allowing planners to design dynamic and personalised event journeys.
True to the dusitD2 brand’s lifestyle-driven philosophy, Feydhoo Hall introduces a fresh approach to meetings and events — where productivity meets creativity in an inspiring island setting.
The venue offers flexible meeting formats designed to suit different event needs, including:
- Half-Day Meeting Package (4 hours) — ideal for focused sessions, executive meetings, and creative workshops.
- Full-Day Meeting Package (8 hours) — designed for immersive conferences, extended workshops, and large-scale corporate gatherings.
These thoughtfully structured packages provide planners with the flexibility to create impactful and seamless experiences, whether hosting intimate strategy sessions or dynamic full-day events.

Located just seven minutes by speedboat from Velana International Airport, dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives combines accessibility with vibrant lifestyle energy, offering event planners and guests a rare balance between convenience and tropical escape.
With the introduction of Feydhoo Hall, the resort strengthens its position as a versatile destination — not only for leisure travellers but also for international conferences, creative retreats, luxury weddings, and large-scale social celebrations seeking something refreshingly different in the Maldives.
Business
BBM expands retail presence with new Hulhumalé outlet
Bestbuy Maldives (BBM) opened a new wholesale store in Hulhumalé Phase 2 on Monday.
The outlet is located on the ground floor of Lot 20286, Nirolhu Magu, and is intended to improve access to BBM’s imported goods for residents of Hulhumalé Phase 2 and for businesses operating in the area.
According to the company, the opening forms part of its plan to expand services closer to customers in line with population growth in Hulhumalé.
With the opening of the new store, BBM’s full range of imported and distributed products will be available at the Hulhumalé Phase 2 location. These include consumer goods from international brands such as Lifebuoy, Vaseline and Unilever.
The store will also stock wholesale food products from brands including Daily, Cavin’s and Redman.
BBM has supplied goods to resorts, hotels and retail outlets across the Maldives for several years.
Action
Ataraxis Grand & Spa hosts integrated work-and-dive corporate retreat in Fuvahmulah
Ataraxis Grand & Spa recently hosted a week-long, closed corporate offsite in Fuvahmulah for a US-based artificial intelligence company, highlighting the island’s growing suitability for integrated work-and-experience retreats. The retreat brought a group of 36 international professionals to the property, which was reserved exclusively for the programme.
Designed as a private company offsite, the stay combined structured daily work sessions with guided diving and beginner-friendly surf experiences, creating a balanced format that blended focused collaboration with physical reset.

A notable component of the programme was dive training and certification. During the retreat, 17 participants completed their Open Water certification, while a further six undertook the Advanced Open Water course, with training and dives scheduled alongside work sessions as part of the integrated itinerary.
Throughout the week, participants worked on-site using dedicated shared spaces supported by reliable high-speed internet, allowing meetings, informal collaboration and scheduled activities to take place within a single, uninterrupted environment. This setup enabled teams to move seamlessly between work periods and organised ocean activities without leaving the property.

Fuvahmulah’s natural and operational advantages formed a key part of the retreat’s appeal. As one of the Maldives’ largest inhabited islands, it offers immediate access to pelagic dive sites, internationally recognised shark diving and surf breaks suitable for instruction, alongside the infrastructure required to support extended group stays.

The offsite reflects a growing preference among technology and knowledge-sector teams for small-scale retreats that prioritise concentrated work environments and team cohesion over traditional conference formats. Such programmes typically involve longer stays and higher per-capita spend, aligning with sustainable, quality-driven tourism models.
The retreat also demonstrates how locally operated properties such as Ataraxis Grand & Spa are supporting this shift by delivering unified environments where accommodation, workspaces, connectivity and curated experiences operate as a single programme rather than separate services.

As organisations continue to explore alternative formats for strategy sessions, team resets and creative offsites, Ataraxis Grand & Spa’s experience positions Fuvahmulah as an increasingly viable destination for integrated corporate retreats.
Ataraxis Grand & Spa offers work-and-dive retreat programmes in Fuvahmulah that combine accommodation, dedicated workspaces, high-speed connectivity and organised diving and surfing.

Further information on retreat formats and dive-inclusive stays is available via the Ataraxis Grand & Spa website.
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