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Gulf Business caught up with some of the world's top hotel managers and asked how their businesses are faring in the regional turmoil. The overwhelmingconsensus is that the UAE has gained footfall amid its more turbulent neighbours. Occupancy rates have plunged in conflict-torn countries, but the long-term regional hospitality outlook is positive, with global hotel chains continuing to invest millions of dollars in new properties across the Middle East.
HOTELS : We will have 30 more hotels in MENA by 2014 - across the Gulf, Egypt, Morocco and Iraq. We don't plan to hold back on any of these. We have one project that's due to come out of the ground in Libya but, just like every other project in Libya, things are on hold.
We announced an $800 million hotel investment over five years. It's exciting and we will have 46 hotels by September.
Since the recession, more people are attracted to medium and budget hotels. And the UAE can offer that. Centro, our mid-tier hotel, is doing very well- it's our fastest growing brand and I think that mid-tier is the fastest growing type of hotel in the region today. The dynamic of the market is changing - people want to spend less but they are still demanding a certain quality.
People don't have money to spend like they used to. The budget airlines are doing well at bringing in people who are conscious of spending money. The appetite for luxury never waned, however, there were more people that could afford luxury as the prices of the room rates came down.Q1 2011 in the UAE is going well. We budgeted at around 70 per cent and we're doing 80 per cent occupancy. There are good signs. In the past two years we didn't know where we were going.
The regional turmoil helped Dubai and the UAE as the Saudis didn't fly to Lebanon or Egypt or Syria. In the UAE there is so much happening in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Exhibitions are increasing, there's a lot of internal focus on putting the UAE in the best position.
I'm optimistic about the future but I'm cautiously optimistic about how far it will get back to the norm, or even better that the norm....