FOLLOWING Golden Tulip’s merger with Louvre AMINE MOUKARZEL senior vice president for the Mena region speaks to TTN about the effects of the deal and future expansion plans.
How many hotels does Golden Tulip currently operate throughout the Mena region?
Golden Tulip Hotels Suites and Resorts is the leading single brand in the four-star category. With its strength in franchise and management, it is represented in nearly every city with more than 40 hotels at present and aiming to reach 65 by 2012.
How has business been this year, has there been a marked recovery from 2009?
The business-positive atmosphere in certain cities like Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Beirut, Sharjah… has overcome the negative impact in some other destinations.
We address here two major business platforms, one is operating hotels and related performance and the second is related to development and new hotels.
We believe in a positive approach and have established the brand and its equity for the last five years which has started paying returns. Such vision has materialised properties in major destinations where we have added new hotels such as Saudi Arabia, Tunis, Doha, Beirut and Jordan.
We have also identified new territories with emerging markets similarly such as Erbil in Iraq, North Africa resort destinations and the holy cities of Madinah and Makkah in Saudi Arabia.
As to the performance of the hotels, we have witnessed pressure on the average rate (ADR), especially in Dubai and the emirates as a whole, which relates not only to the market economical depression but also to supply and demand and to the volume of patronage in exhibitions and conferences, to name but few.
Was the company much affected by the economic downturn?
Golden Tulip Hotels Suites and Resorts, having three brands, appeals to the several tiers of hotel class from luxury level with Royal Tulip to Golden Tulip five and four-star hotels, resorts and suites and is complemented by Tulip Inn Hotels and Suites.
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We have branded some Tulip Inns as four-star resorts, in particular the stunning Hawar Island in Bahrain (pictured) and in Saudi Arabia, as well as Tulip Inn Resort Phebus in Tunis. As such we have been pro-active and increased our portfolio and signed up new hotels through acquisition and conversion as well as adding new builds such as Golden Tulip Muscat, Golden Tulip Madina and Golden Tulip Makkah, to name but a few.
Such increases in the portfolio capture a positive network to cover for the hotels that are performing at a lower level than in previous years. We hope 2010 will be a stabilising time bringing a turn around to move forward in 2011 for better results.
How have things been since the merger with Lourve and have many of the Kyriad properties now changed over to Golden Tulip?
Louvre Hotels group and Golden Tulip Hospitality Group provide seven brands at present from one to five stars. The Louvre brands, Premiere Classe, Campanille, Kyriad and Kyriad prestige, with more than 200 hotels in over 40 countries, strengthen the portfolio of Golden Tulip. We are pretty motivated with the Starwood acquisition and the merger with Louvre Hotels at present, yet the future is promising as we are the second largest hospitality group in Europe and the eighth largest worldwide.
Such an opportunity enhances our deliverables to our franchisees, owners, hoteliers, staff and to the community we serve, as such our reservation system is considered one of the most advanced in the industry as we recently migrated to goldres 3, and training took place in the region and worldwide in October.
At our annual conference in Casablanca in mid of October we gathered to address the company vision, the way forward, industry trends in IT, reservation systems, special alliances with third parties and procurement.
To sum up we believe in a great synergy. We shall have our new head office in Paris with one president, one team who have proven records with Louvre Hotels, which reflects positively on the Golden Tulip network.
You have various new openings planned for the coming months, please can you tell us about these, where they will be and how many rooms they will add to the portfolio?
We have several new openings as mentioned earlier, in different countries and cities, such as in Tunisia, where we are opening four new properties to add more then 900 rooms to our portfolio in this great country where we have been present and very well represented for more then 10 years, thanks to our stunning properties Golden Tulip Carthage and Tulip Inn Residence Carthage.
In Doha, which is a new market for us, we are aiming to have two new properties between 2011 and 2012.
In Oman, two new properties are to open between 2011 and 2012.
In Saudi Arabia where the company and brand is very well established with more then 17 operating hotels at present, we are aiming to enlarge our portfolio to open new hotels in the holy cities, we are aiming to add four properties in Saudi Arabia in the coming two years.
We are to open a new property in early 2011 in Ras Al Khaimah, in the neighborhood of our two resorts in Dibba and Khasab, complementing and strengthening our presence in the UAE with nine operating hotels at present in almost every emirate.
How were the new locations decided?
In terms of location, the identification and development team looks at two major criteria. One is acquisition and conversion of existing hotels which need international branding and management with strong marketing drives, human resources, reservation systems, loyalty programmes, consortia contacts and a reputable name.
The second is new hotels whereby we work with consultants where we become short-listed or owners who refer us to other owners. One of the strongest referrals is to have one owner recommending us to another and this applies for both new hotels as well as those in need of rebranding.
Moreover when we are in a country we serve the community and our system provides a great vehicle to our growth momentum in the region.
What are the plans for the future, is further expansion on the cards either regionally or internationally?
India, Brazil and China remain to be the largest regions and territories to develop hotels especially with the support of Louvre Hotels and the trust and confidence in such brands to further strengthen our expansion. We are aiming to have 65 hotels by 2012 in the Mena region and 400 hotels worldwide adding also to our portfolio Russia, the Balkans and Turkey as well as further development in Europe especially in Germany, France and the UK.