Small enough to care for every single hotel yet large enough to compete on a global stage ” is a motto Jakartabased Archipelago International is proving true as despite the pandemic it continues to grow in Indonesia , breaks through in Saudi Arabia , grows in Cuba and launches Collection by Aston , using its flagship brand to attract independents now in need of support .
In its home country with a stable economy , a rapidly growing middle class , infrastructure upgrades , Archipelago has added 17 new management agreements .
It has added three hotels ( 1,704 rooms ) to its Cuba portfolio , reaching six hotels with 3,562 rooms . To support its growth in Cuba , the great Caribbean and Latin America , Archipelago is in the process of opening a corporate office in Havana , which will be led by Sr . Jose Luis Leonardo , Archipelago ’ s director of operations in The Americas .
The last year and a half in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been a breakthrough for Archipelago , working with some of the largest owners and developers there , including Jabal Omar Development Co ., Al Othaim , Samama Real Estate Development Co . and Al
Rajhi Endowment Co . It has added three new hotels in Makkah , including the 5-star Jabal Omar The Royal Alana Makkah with 581 rooms . In Madinah , it has two new projects , including the rebranding of a 404-room hotel located directly adjacent to Al-Masjid an-Nabawi . And in Jeddah , it has another two new projects .
HOTELS recently spoke to
Archipelago International President and CEO John Flood to get more details on the group ’ s growth . Today , Archipelago has 154 hotels ( 11 franchised and two owned ) with close to 21,000 rooms , with another 42 active projects .
HOTELS : What brand ( s ) have the most traction , and why ?
JOHN FLOOD : Aston and Fave are the two brands which give us the most traction and have done really well for us and owners over the years .
Aston does well in the mid- to high end , while Fave does really well in the economy class .
Both brands are well known in Indonesia , while Aston will also grow considerably once the Saudi and Cuban markets open up again . We have several very large Astons in those countries .
H : What region , location has delivered the best results for growth , and why ?
JF : Indonesia is our home turf , and we ’ ve operated here for more than 20 years . In any given year , we sign more HMAs here than our two largest competitors combined .
Indonesia has one of the largest domestic tourists markets in the world with over 250 million travelers , so it ’ s really big and diverse – plenty of opportunities for growth .
With our 10 core brands offering a full range of hotel types , we ’ ve been able to build our customer base and expand in all the main cities and tourist destinations across the archipelago . Our 3 million engaged Indonesian members give us a good base of business and we have great relationships with the biggest travel partners here .
H : How is performance holding up this year and what is your nearterm forecast ( rest of ’ 21 and into ’ 22 )?
JF : We had seen a good pick up from January to June where we achieved 60 % occupancy across the group . Unfortunately , July has seen a new wave of the Delta variant , so things are a bit slow at the moment . But we expect this to be a two-month wave and for things to pick up again from September onwards .
With the vaccination program now running well with two million vaccinations , Indonesia should have most people vaccinated by mid-next year .
Into 2022 , we expect business to pick up substantially and we ’ re ready to take advantage of the up-tick .
We spent the down actually super busy re-jigging our organization , updating brand DNAs and developing new systems and procedures so we ’ re really looking forward to putting it all into play .
Overall , we expect next year and 2023 to see a good pick up , while from 2024 onwards we expect a boom time for travel .
H : Biggest challenge moving forward , as well as biggest opportunity ?
JF : Our biggest challenges moving forward will firstly be the lack of airline capacity , which will take some time to come back around .
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