Opening Dubai hotel challenging for Ritz-Carlton
Posted on 06 May 2009 with no comments from readers
Ritz-Carlton will open its latest property in the Middle East in the Dubai International Financial Centre this December.
The famous hotelier is clearly hoping that financial markets will have improved by then. But as CEO Simon Cooper told ArabianMoney.Net yesterday at the Arabian Travel Market ‘any hotel has to operate during good times and bad, and the reality is that the Middle East hotel market is still expanding’.
DIFC debut
General manager of the newest addition to the chain, Pascal Duchauffour, says opening the 341-room, 124 serviced-apartment hotel is clearly going to be a ‘major challenge’ in the present economic environment which has left Dubai’s city hotels half-empty.
Yet the DIFC Ritz-Carlton is also symbolic of the fantastic infrastructure that the city has gained during the long oil boom of the 2000s. This super luxury hotel will be connected at podium level to the DIFC complex, and feature a 1,400 square metre ballroom to seat up to 1,000 for dinner or conferences.
Mr Cooper is right. The Middle East hospitality market is still expanding. But that is a curse as well as a blessing in a recession because it means new capacity is coming on stream at a time of falling demand.
The Ritz-Carlton may be luckier with the opening of its Nile property in two years time, or the 160-room Palm Hills hotel in Cairo only signed this week. There are also two hotels coming up in Abu Dhabi and the first should open in 2012. King Abdullah Economic City will have another.
New additions
Mr Cooper hopes to add Lebanon and Oman to his collection but he remains sanguine about the prospects of a quick recovery: ‘The major source markets like the UK are down and it is not easy to find visitors to pay $500-600 a night in a global downturn. I do not see a quick recovery.’
All the same, the chain’s two hotels in Doha are protected by what is expected to be the world’s best performing economy this year, albeit with GDP growth trimmed from 16 per cent last year to 9.4 per cent. However, it will probably be easier to find a room in Doha than in recent years as several new luxury hotels are set to open.
These are indeed challenging times for hoteliers in the Middle East. But the main winner will be the customer who is going to get some amazing deals on what are undoubtedly among the best hotels in the world.
