EYEBROW
REGIONAL PROFILE
A rendering of a Tin Hotel
MIDDLE EAST
MIDDLE GROUND
HOTEL COMPANIES ARE LOOKING BEYOND LUXURY AND TAPPING INTO GROWING DEMAND FOR MIDDLE-MARKET OPTIONS .
By BARBARA BOHN , MANAGING EDITOR
“
Undersupplied ” is how Action Hotels CEO Alain Debare describes the Middle East . “ There is massive potential for midmarket .” Economy and midscale brands comprise only 19 % of branded supply in the Middle
East , according to STR data from December . Other factors support a move into midscale : a decrease in global oil prices that ’ s prompting Gulf Cooperation Council countries to diversify their economies ; the predominance of unbranded and privately owned hotels in that sector ; growth in intra-regional travel ; and a pipeline until 2018 bulging with luxury hotels .
The majority of hotel markets in the region saw a downturn during 2015 . Based on its database of about 150,000 rooms operating in the region , HVS predicts that leading hotel operators are expecting to release a further 100,000 rooms between 2016 and 2020 , with over 18,000 new rooms in 2016 alone .
The current target for Dubai is 140,000 rooms by 2020 . Even with that increase , Guy Hutchinson , chief operating officer of Rotana Hotel Management , predicts that the city will be in the top five for RevPAR in the world .
“ There was no middle class 20 years ago , and a lot of people that live and work in the region are looking for affordable solutions ,” Debare says . Action Hotels partners with companies like AccorHotels and IHG ,
44 hotelsmag . com October 2016