Hotel report
Oman’s renaissance movement
SIMON GEORGE TRAVELS TO OMAN TO DISCOVER RECENT ADDITIONS
TO AL NAHDA HOTELS & RESORTS’ PORTFOLIO
man blends exotic with
austere, fertile with barren,
and the dramatic with
cinematic in terms of
landscape. One company tapping into
this geographical diversity (mountains,
ravines, oases and deserts) for smaller
meetings and incentives is Al Nahda
Hotels & Resorts (‘Renaissance’ in
Arabic).
Operating in Oman since 2006, when
it opened Al Nahda Resort & Spa near
the capital, Muscat, the company has
since added two more hotel properties
to its portfolio – Dunes, a 5-star tented
resort in the desert about an hour’s
drive from Muscat, which opened in
September 2015; and Sahab Resort &
Spa, a 4-star hotel situated in Jabal
Akhdar (in the western Hajar mountain
range) two and a half hours’ drive from
Muscat, which opened this February.
Both are boutique properties ideal for
corporate offsites and teambuilding
exercises.
Cloud conferencing @Sahab
Resort & Spa
Sahab is reached via an ear-popping
ascent from Muscat and traversing
hairpin bends to over 2,000m
above sea level.
Appropriately, given its altitude, the
hotel’s name means ‘Cloud’ in Arabic.
Newly renovated, Sahab is a 27-room
property owned by the government and
managed by Al Nahda. Offering
spectacular panoramic views over the
mountains and providing a cool retreat
from Muscat’s stifling summer heat, the
hotel makes a play on its location (and
history) by using local limestone and
marine fossils in its interiors.
The hotel’s main meeting room can
accommodate 35 people but offers
considerable outdoor space for off-sites,
entertaining (including Majilis,
Arabic-style low seating on cushions for
al-fresco dining) and weddings.
Teambuilding exercises available
include mountain climbing, trekking
and mountain biking.
Dunes by Al Nahda – under
the sheltering sky
After the cool mountain air of Sahab,
Dunes could not offer a more sensory
contrast. The air gets warmer as you
lose altitude, but it’s not a descent into a
Dante-esque inferno if you arrive
mid-March, although summer
temperatures can reach 50ºC, which
means the property is closed from April
to September. This desert resort
comprises 50 bedrooms (30 luxury tents
in three categories with ensuite
bathrooms) surrounded by steep
sand dunes.
Situated two hours from the Dubai
border at Wadi Al Abiyad, the resort
has a conference room able to host up to
100 people, and has had a number of
complete buyouts for offsites this season
from French and German corporate
clients, and domestically from Bank
Muscat, which shot a promotional
video at the resort.
Top right: Dunes
desert watering hole
Bottom left: Sahab
outdoor relaxation
area
Fun activities for MICE delegates
include quad biking, dune bashing,
camel riding and bunker golf, as well as
treatments at the resort’s spa and
star-gazing at night.
In terms of its MICE approach, Al
Nahda’s strategy for Dunes is not really
different to its strategy for Sahab, says
Group Director – Quality Assurance &
Projects Krishna Suri. He says the
resort is best suited to “a complete
buyout rather than being shared with
another group… even if we have to
keep a few rooms empty because it gives
a lot more privacy. Which is exactly
why you come to a location like this”.
Of course there are challenges, and
economic slowdown and falling oil
prices have hit Oman as much of the
Middle East. Add in the scale of
hospitality development and, says Suri,
“the whole market has become a lot
more competitive… supply is probably
exceeding demand in the hotel sector”.
Suri is hopeful of an upturn from
September and says the business can
recover demand through the local
market. The GCC has a large ex-pat
population who can afford to travel and,
during Eid in particular, there is a lot of
domestic travel across the GCC. “We
get people from Bahrain, from Saudi
Arabia and the UAE. That’s a market
we can depend on,” Suri adds.
ISSUE 100
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Below: Valley
View on Sahab
Resort & Spa
Bottom: View on the
Dunes desert resort
Simon George
travelled to Al
Nahda Hotels &
Resorts courtesy of
Oman’s Ministry of
Tourism, Al Nahda
Hotels & Resorts
and Oman Air.
CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
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