Paris Hilton wants to open a club and hotel in Dubai and will be looking at property while she films her new reality TV series in the emirate, the American party girl said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the launch of her show ‘Paris Hilton My New BFF - Dubai’, the hotel heiress said she believed her own brand of hotel would be “ideal” for the city.
“It is such a great place here (Dubai),” Hilton told reporters, adding that she would also like to expand her fashion lines in Dubai, which includes footwear and a line of tops, dresses, coats, and jeans.
Hilton, the great-granddaughter of the Hilton hotel chain's founder, has spoke on several occasions of opening up her own hotel chain, but as yet nothing has materialised. She previously lent her name to a a chain of nightclubs, but that association ended in 2007 after she failed to attend several scheduled promotional appearances.
The 28-year-old arrived in Dubai on Tuesday to film the reality TV series in which she puts a group of women through their paces to see if they are compatible with her.
The series first aired n the United States in September 2008, with 16 women and 2 men competing in challenges in an attempt to become her new best friend. Hilton has also taken the show to the UK.
Hilton said the Dubai series would feature a group of 22 women, half of Middle Eastern origin and the other half made up of women from Dubai’s expatriate community.
The U.S. version of the show, set in Las Vegas, was renowned for alcohol, foul language and Hilton’s sexy behaviour and wardrobe.
In one challenge female contestants had to strip down to their bikinis and perform a sexy dance in front of a group of men.
Hilton said there would be none of those antics in Dubai, a Muslim state where public consumption of alcohol and sexual displays go against its conservative cultural values.
“What happened in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas. I completely respect the culture of the UAE and Dubai is a far classier place anyway, I would never do something like that here,” she said.
Hilton shot to fame in 2003 when her boyfriend leaked a video of their sexual escapades on the Internet. In 2007, she was jailed for 23 days for violating probation over an alcohol-related reckless driving conviction.
During her stay in Dubai, which is unlikely to last longer than three weeks, Hilton said she wants to learn some Arabic and ride a camel – the latter apparently something she has wanted to do for some time.