With heated stalls and hot milk, life couldn’t get more glamorous for some of Saudi Arabia’s most beautiful camels when they stay at a luxury compound near Riyadh.
For 400 riyals-a-night, the equivaelnt of £78, the camels are trimmed, scrubbed and pampered before taking part in beauty contests, where millions of pounds are at stake.
The camels, many of which are rented, are checked closely for Botox and other illegal enhancements which could see them thrown out for cheating.
A man tending to a camel at the first camel hotel during the sixth edition of the King Abdulazziz Camel Festival in Rumahi region 99 miles east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh
Camel owners pay the equivalent of £78 each night before their animals go to beauty contests
Camels are placed in stalls in the luxury Saudi spa compound and checked for any imperfections
It’s all done in a Covid-safe environment to prevent any disruptive outbreaks.
The Tatman, described as the first hotel for camels, is an open-air desert compound near the annual King Abdelaziz Festival, which has prizes totalling £48.9million.
It’s a logical step for the lucrative industry in the well-heeled Gulf, where camels are prized as a symbol of traditional life.
Two workers groom and style a camel’s fur to make it look even more desirable for a pageant
Camels with pronounced lips are favoured by judges, which has led to the use of Botox by cheaters
The animals are judged on attributes including their lips, necks, humps and colouring, and wins are highly prestigious for their owners.
Omair al-Qahtani, who is Saudi, checked 80 camels into the Tatman for 16 days, saying it would cost him £117,000 to £156,000.
The facility is ‘very comfortable, as the camels remain under their care and undergo regular medical examinations’, the 51-year-old businessman said.
It has 120 enclosures, including singles and doubles, each equipped with plastic containers for water and fodder. Check-out is 12.30pm.
During their stay, 50 workers look after the animals and are kept under strict sanitary conditions to minimise the risk of Covid cases.
In years past, Qahtani and his assistants would set up tents near the festival, tending to and feeding the camels themselves.
Camels are seen during a beauty contest as part of the annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival in Rumah in this file photo from 2018
Not only is the treatment unfair on other breeders, but it risks leaving the camels with horrific injuries. Footage (pictured) went viral earlier this year showing a camel with ruptured lips after it was pumped full of Botox for another Saudi beauty contest
Hundreds of thousands of Saudis attend the royal camel festival (pictured in 2018) which also features races, sales and other festivities typically showcasing thousands of dromedaries
Cars and people surround camels for sale at an auction during the festival in January 2020
Many of the camels are competitors in Mazayen al-Ibl contest, the world’s biggest camel beauty pageant and a highlight of the King Abdelaziz Festival.
Mohamed al-Harbi, media chief of the camel club that organises the competition, said the group dreamed up the hotel ‘to protect and preserve camels and also to reduce the burden on the owner’.
He said the hotel was popular, bringing in revenues of more than £1.2million.
Money is no object for some attending the festival, which features well-appointed buildings and tents in the middle of the desert, and booths for luxury car-makers Rolls-Royce and BMW.
Camels participating in the annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival in January 2018
Saudi enthusiasts can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on camels entered into the contests, where unscrupulous competitors sometimes seek an illegal advantage.
Forty-three dromedaries were drummed out of the festival when camel checkers spotted infringements such as Botox, silicone and fillers injected into lips, humps and tails.
But Harbi said the hotel provides a ‘check’ so that people ‘can find any tampering early’, reassuring them their rented beasts won’t be sent packing.
Qahtani said this is a big advantage, as doctored camels can attract fines of up to £19,000.
The competitions ‘reinforce the obsession with camels in Saudi Arabia’, Harbi said.
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