Four Seasons will open a resort in Tangier, the company announced on October 8 with Royal Resort Cap Malabata, a development company backed by GFH Bank. Four Seasons Resort Tangier is planned for the Cap Malabata district, on a cliffside site along Morocco’s northern coastline where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. October 8 was the announcement, not an opening: the release sets out no opening date, no room rates and no reservation schedule.
The geography is the argument. The resort will overlook the Strait of Gibraltar, with views of Spain across the water, a setting the announcement describes as a connection between continents, cultures and coastlines. The buildings are designed by Arjitec, with interiors by Goddard Littlefair. The plan calls for 99 guest rooms and suites, including 27 standalone villas, and more than 260 metres, or 850 feet, of waterfront.
What is planned
The resort program, as announced, pairs expansive pool and waterfront lounging with four dining venues blending local and international flavours, a full-service spa and fitness centre, and the brand’s Kids For All Seasons program. Indoor and outdoor venues for celebrations and meetings are planned, all oriented to the waterfront views. Access is part of the pitch: the resort is approximately 15 minutes from Tangier’s high-speed train station and 45 minutes from Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport, according to the announcement.
For the developer, the hotel anchors a much larger statement about the city. Abdulwahed Al Kooheji, chief executive officer of Royal Resort Cap Malabata, described Tangier’s strategic location, cultural heritage and waterfront setting as ideal for the project in the announcement, and the masterplan’s design language is described by the developer as blending traditional Moorish architecture with modern amenities across its residential and hotel buildings. Tangier’s draw for the resort guest, in the announcement’s framing, is the combination itself: souks and a historic medina within easy reach, and a quiet cliffside enclave above the strait to return to.
The bigger bet behind it
The hotel is one piece of a much larger development. Royal Resort Cap Malabata is described by its developer as a master-planned destination of 1.10 million square metres, delivering approximately 1,200 residential units alongside multi-star hotels, and designed to host four hotels as a wellness-focused enclave, with a sports club, convention centre, spa and beach clubs. The developer says the project has already created almost 15,000 jobs. Those are the developer’s figures for the wider scheme, not the hotel alone, and they frame the scale of the wager being placed on Tangier’s northern coast.
“As our fourth property in Morocco, Four Seasons Resort Tangier expands our collection in one of the region’s most compelling destinations,” said Ricardo Suarez, group head of development at Four Seasons.
The three existing Moroccan properties frame what Tangier adds. Casablanca is the commercial capital’s city hotel, Marrakech the resort address inland, and Rabat, the capital, hosts the collection’s most recent Moroccan opening at Kasr Al Bahr. Tangier gives the brand the country’s northern coast and its only Strait of Gibraltar setting, on the Tangier side of the water facing Spain. For a traveller building a Moroccan itinerary across the brand, the announcement completes a rough geographic square: Atlantic business city, inland resort, capital, and now the Mediterranean-facing north.
The resort will be Four Seasons’ fourth property in Morocco, joining Four Seasons Hotel Casablanca, Four Seasons Resort Marrakech and Four Seasons Hotel Rabat at Kasr Al Bahr. What the announcement does not yet provide is a timetable. Until the developer publishes an opening date, the Tangier resort belongs in the same category as the rendering above: a defined project on a remarkable headland, with the design team named, the room count set and the waterfront measured, awaiting the only details travellers can actually book against.
The scale behind the announcement is considerable. Four Seasons opened its first hotel in 1961 and now operates 140 hotels and resorts and 61 residential properties in 47 countries, with a pipeline of more than 60 projects, according to the company. GFH Bank, the Bahrain-based group backing the developer, reports assets and funds under management of approximately US$24 billion. None of that builds a hotel on its own. What to watch from here is the sequence every announced resort must produce: a construction timetable, an opening date, opening photography of the finished buildings rather than renderings, and finally rates. Tangier has the site, the brand and the architects. The calendar is the missing page.
Photography: Rendering courtesy of Four Seasons
