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Rocco Forte to kick-off Mideast debut

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The Rocco Forte Collection – Europe’s leading luxury hotel brand, recently unveiled its expansion plans for the region with its first property in the Middle East due to open in Abu Dhabi in mid 2010.  This will be followed by a 146-bedroom property opening in Jeddah in autumn 2011, a 90 suite golf, spa and villa resort in Marrakech in 2011 and a 275-bedroom property in Cairo in 2013. The company currently has 13 luxury hotels in major cities across Europe.

Richard Power, brand managing director for The Rocco Forte Collection spoke to Shalu Chandran about its foray into the region.

Rocco Forte is finally ready to opens doors in the region. What have been the biggest concerns?

Hotels are a long-term investment and there’s always a better time or a worse time to open a hotel. Abu Dhabi has been a relatively stable market and there hasn’t been a big increase in supply in recent years. It is going to be a very exciting hotel and we are trail-blazing into the next part of Abu Dhabi’s development. The hotel with 281 rooms will be housed in a stunning 12-floor curved glass structure designed by architect W S Atkins and Partners.

Interiors are being created by Dubai-based interior design specialists KCA International under the guidance of Olga Polizzi, director of design for The Rocco Forte Collection and sister of Sir Rocco Forte. 

The hotel in Abu Dhabi will be principally a corporate hotel with very strong leisure facilities. So while it could be a good leisure product, at the end of the day its main source of business will be commercial.

In comparison to Europe where we have seen hotel volumes down by 25 per cent this looks like an extraordinarily stable region.

Tell us more about the Abu Dhabi property.

The Abu Dhabi property will open in the middle of summer. The building will deliver a stylish blend of European and Middle Eastern design to the city.

It will have a sophisticated feel and, like all Rocco Forte Collection hotels, will reflect its location by using local artwork and Middle Eastern accents in accessories and fabrics.  The guest bedrooms will be decorated in shades of green, yellow and terracotta and will feature large leather panels behind the headboards, curved modern sofas and art work by local artists and the poet Adonis.

The property will offer a wide choice of food and drink outlets.

One of the design highlights of the hotel will be the Sky Bar which will be suspended on the fifth floor of a ten-storey atrium boasting stunning views of the city. 

For relaxation, there will be a 2,000-sq-m spa featuring ten treatment rooms.  The hotel will have extensive conference and event facilities with its own dedicated meetings entrance, reception area, business centre, executive lounge and lifts. 

An artist perspective of the Rocco Jeddah

How aware are the Arab guests of the Rocco Forte brand. What kind of marketing and brand awareness programme do you have planned for the region?

We start of with the assumption that there is zero awareness. What Rocco Forte represents today is quite different from what it did years ago, when we were in this region. We have changed in the same way the region has, we are more design-led, less formal and have higher market positioning as five-star deluxe hotels. Where the Forte name helps us is not with the customer particularly, but more so with the owners. With the customers, we are happy to start afresh.

I suppose our starting point is that about eight per cent of all our customers in Europe come from Saudi Arabia or the UAE. So that means we have a lot of important guests here from the royal families and business men who are aware of us.

The trade in the UAE has some knowledge of us now; we have been coming out here for four years and work with some very good partners. In markets like Doha and in Abu Dhabi the travel agents have a very strong knowledge of the brand, whereas in markets like Saudi Arabia, there is almost no recognition. Things will change when the Rocco Forte Jeddah property opens.

What are the other properties in the region and what can we expect to see?

The next property to open after Abu Dhabi is in Jeddah. The hotel is 18 months away from completion. The 19-storey hotel will consist of 159 rooms, with a high proportion of suites and 50 serviced apartments.

The other hotel that we’ve just been appointed to manage is the Shepheard Hotel in Cairo as a five-star hotel after assisting in the full renovation of the hotel.

We plan to convert the 279-room Shepheard Hotel, located along the Nile River to a full-fledged Rocco Forte Collection Hotel. The refurbished Shepheard will reopen in 2012 with 275 rooms.

The Moroccan resort, which is due to open in 2011, will be set in a 225-hectare estate of olive groves.

It has been only two years since we announced our interest into coming to the Middle East and we already have four properties for our portfolio. We want to focus now on opening Abu Dhabi, but have always stressed that we will look at the right property with the right owner and right positioning. The Middle East is as much a priority for us today as Europe.

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