Emaar Hospitality Group recorded an impressive period of growth and occupancy levels in 2008, marked by the launch of The Address Hotels + Resorts, and the opening of its first flagship property, The Address, Downtown Burj Dubai, according to MARC DARDENNE, chief executive officer, Emaar Hospitality Group and Emaar Hotels & Resorts.
“We expect business in 2009 to continue steadily especially with the opening of two new properties – The Address, Dubai Mall and The Address, Dubai Marina,” he said. Despite the Burj property having been opened when the effects of the global financial downturn were felt beyond Western economies, guest response had been good and the hotel was continuing to have strong occupancy figures.
“For Emaar Hospitality Group on the whole, the hospitality and leisure roster recorded strong growth levels, especially driven by domestic demand and regional tourism inflow,” he said.
“The single important challenge before any business enterprise now is to restore consumer confidence and boost domestic demand. The UAE government has undertaken several concerted initiatives which will further catalyse the economy.”
Dardenne believed that the Middle Eastern markets had been relatively less affected by the global financial crisis as is demonstrated by the growth projections for the coming years, but that the market must prepare itself to face a projected decline in tourism and business travel from feeder markets in Europe and America. “This will call for concerted efforts to boost local demand and regional tourism. The MICE segment is projected to grow in this region and will be a key area that can be tapped by the hospitality sector,” he said.
The group’s operational strategies for 2009 will focus on further strengthening sales and marketing initiatives in key feeder markets in the Gulf region, the Indian subcontinent and Europe. The MICE sector and business travel will be another focus area to further strengthen occupancy levels.
“We already have offices in some of our key feeder markets such as UK and Germany and will be opening further offices in other key feeder markets such as Saudi Arabia and India. In addition to this we will work on marketing campaigns with our key partners in the airline industry,” said Dardenne.
New projects in the region include the opening of The Address, Dubai Mall and The Address, Dubai Marina next year, as well as hospitality projects in Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
“Emaar’s projects are in the emerging markets of the Middle East and North Africa region, the Indian Subcontinent and South Asia. Some of our new, emerging source markets are the BRIC countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China and we will be looking at these very closely in the year ahead,” he said.