DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — After Giorgio Armani's venture into the hotel business, another Italian fashion icon, Gucci, has chosen glitzy Dubai to launch its own hotel chain. Lorens Zil ler, the managing director for Elisabetta Gucci Hotels, says the first Gucci hotel will open in Dubai's Media City by the end of the year.

The building has been completed, but work on the 87-suite interior has yet to start, Ziller said in a phone interview Monday. Gucci also plans hotels in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Oman and China.

In April, Armani opened his first hotel in Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper. The Associated Press