Dubai delays two major hotel openings as tourism business gets tougher
Posted on 10 January 2011 with no comments from readers
Two of this year’s major hotel launches in Dubai have been put back until later in the year due to the tougher business climate for tourism in the emirate.
The Seven Tides Group, whose Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel was recently reviewed on this website (click here) is delaying the opening of two hotels on the Palm Jumeriah, the 293-room Royal Amwaj on the crescent and the Oceana on the trunk of the palm-shaped island.
2011 outlook
‘The outlook for the year has changed with lower occupancy levels and room rates’, MD Mike Scully told journalists. ‘But it is really a matter of the number of new hotels opening and not the tourism sector which is still strong’.
Last year tourism grew by nine per cent in Dubai, far ahead of many other global destinations and putting Dubai ahead of Paris in terms of the number of foreign visitors, according to Euro Monitor. But as more and more luxury hotels open their doors in the city this is making life very competitive.
Today the Seven Tides Group unveiled its ‘unlock the gate’ promotion for the Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel and distributed some 22,000 keys to local residents with the opportunity to unlock special discounts and promotions at the hotel.
It is also selling Laurent Perrier Champagne at half the price of any other hotel for an indefinite period, and will be opening one of the Middle East’s biggest nightclubs, Diablo on January 20th.
Win an apartment!
Key holders also have a chance of winning an entry into a prize draw to win an apartment leased for a year. All the Seven Tides four major properties include apartments. The second, the 216-room Movenpick Diera, was the first new five-star hotel to open in 2011 on January 1st.
Filling the 1,200 rooms that Seven Tides will have by the end of 2011 is clearly proving a serious challenge, and imaginative promotions are necessary. But it also makes sense to delay launches past the summer which is likely to be a particularly tough period for the local hotels this year.
That said any hotel once built is losing money if its door are shut, and the real winners will be visitors to Dubai who will have even better choice and value than ever.
