Wynn Resorts has pushed the opening of Wynn Al Marjan in Ras Al Khaimah to September 2027 and revised the total construction cost upward by $600 million to approximately $5.7 billion, citing delays partly connected to the recent Iran war, according to local media reports.
Chief executive Craig Billings disclosed the figures during an earnings call on Wednesday covering the company’s second-quarter results. He said interior fit-out of the hotel was progressing well and that hiring was on track, with 425 people currently employed at Wynn Al Marjan. Around 3,000 staff will be needed before the launch.
Billings was direct about the geopolitical backdrop but did not waver on the company’s commitment. “I’m not going to tell you there’s no risk, but when we underwrote the project, we didn’t underwrite a region with zero geopolitical risk. We underwrote a country with a demonstrated ability to manage through it,” he said.
He pointed to Dubai Airport continuing to grow flight capacity over recent months and described supply chains and day-to-day life as broadly normal. “So we’re planning a pretty normal course of construction.”
He also offered a pointed assessment of the UAE’s resilience during the conflict, saying the country “absorbs pressure and keeps functioning rather than one that gets knocked off course by it.”
On the project itself, Billings was unambiguous: “What we are building in the region is one of a kind and the quality of work on site is truly extraordinary. We continue to believe this will be the most exciting integrated resort opening globally in over a decade, and we remain as committed to and confident in the UAE as ever.”
Wynn Al Marjan Island will be the UAE’s first integrated gaming resort. The company received the country’s first commercial gaming licence in October 2024, and the project originally targeted an early 2026 opening before successive delays.
With 1,530 suites and villas, it will rank as the third-largest hotel in the country by rooms, behind Atlantis and the JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai, though it sits on a considerably larger plot of land.
Ras Al Khaimah has positioned the resort as a centrepiece of its effort to diversify away from a manufacturing-heavy economy and build a tourism base capable of competing with its neighbours.
