REGIONAL PROFILE
>> Continued from page 45
QATAR ’ S BIG MOMENT “ Doha was a city we were always attracted to in terms of investment ,” says Jay Stein , CEO of Dream Hotels Group , which is venturing into the Middle East with a 325- room hotel in that city scheduled to open in late 2019 . It views Starwood ’ s W Doha Hotel & Residences as the highly stylized Dream hotel ’ s sole competition in the lifestyle market . The city ’ s airport , which opened in 2014 , was built with an expectation that tourism will balloon , especially in 2022 , when it hosts the FIFA World Cup .
Stein says the company is looking elsewhere in Doha with its current partner , Al Alfia Holding , and is considering Abu Dhabi , Bahrain , Israel and Jordan .
Rotana Hotel Management ’ s aggressive expansion strategy has the Abu Dhabi-based company opening 100 hotels among its five main brands by 2020 – it has 57 open , 42 in the pipeline and “ we ’ re signing 14 or 15 hotels a year ,” Hutchinson says – mostly in the Middle East , via management contracts . It ’ s looking at commercial hubs , including Qatar . The company ’ s middle-market Centro brand debuted about eight years ago . Centro Shaheen , in Jeddah , is the first of five that will open in Saudi Arabia through 2017 , focusing on business districts . It has a location in Doha and five in the United Arab Emirates .
NEW FRONTIERS Elsewhere , Hutchinson points to Iran as poised to blossom . The company is developing four hotels in Tehran and Mashhad .
“ As an emerging economy , it ’ s going to have one of the largest potentials in the Middle East ,” he says . “ In our hotels , we already see 50,000 Iranian tourists in Dubai a year . As an outbound market , Iranians have a growing middle class and significant money .” He declines to name development partners but says the pipeline could total 14 hotels . “ We have a slightly pioneering spirit to us ,” Hutchinson says .
LAND
Joseph Fischer ticks off reasons to be pessimistic about Israel : residents who prefer more economical holiday destinations like Cyprus ; regional unrest in Syria , and lingering memories of a 2014 military operation in Gaza ; Russian sanctions that cut the number of tourists from that country by up to 30 %; the strength of the shekel compared with the euro ; high real estate prices ; and a moribund pipeline .
Israelis vacationing within the country are paying Dubai prices , says Fischer , a hotel industry veteran and owner of Tel Aviv-based Vision Hospitality & Travel . With an Open Skies agreement with the EU that is making air travel more affordable , why stay ?
Historically , most players are local – Fattal Hotels , Isrotel Hotels Management , Dan Hotels , which together have around 70 hotels . International companies – the ones that Fischer says would help goose standards – have a much smaller presence , although luxury chains like Waldorf Astoria and the W have planted flags . And then there ’ s Airbnb , which is now matching Tel Aviv , for instance , in number of hotel rooms with its own offerings , at 8,000 .
The Israeli government this year launched reforms that of
OPPORTUNITY
allowed developers to include 20 % of residential units on hotel projects . It ’ s part of a goal to construct 27,000 hotels rooms in the next 10 years , nine times as many as were built in the previous decade .
One bright spot : the tech hub of Tel Aviv , which is expected to end the year with occupancy at well over 70 %, driven by business demand . International brands like Ritz-Carlton compromised on expensive real estate by opening north of the city proper , in Hersliya .
Still , Fischer says , the country will always have one thing going for it : “ The best advertisement for Israel in the world is the Bible .”
THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SET A GOAL TO CONSTRUCT 27,000 HOTELS ROOMS IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS , NINE TIMES AS MANY AS WERE BUILT IN THE PREVIOUS DECADE .
46 hotelsmag . com October 2016