IT is a year of luxury openings for Starwood as the company launches two luxury brands, the St Regis and Luxury Collection in the Middle East.
Starwood will open two new St Regis hotels with the St Regis Doha and St Regis Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.
The company has also announced that it will debut the St Regis brand to Jordan with the St Regis Amman and the Residences as well as a second property in Abu Dhabi. Guido de Wilde, vice president, regional director Middle East, for Starwood Hotels and Resorts says: “2011 will also see the opening of a Westin Hotel & Spa in Abu Dhabi marking the launch of the brand in the emirate. Coming out of a recessionary market, luxury brands are enjoying the strongest revpar gains of any segment and, fortunately, we have the largest base of luxury hotels in the world.”
Starwood currently operates 50 hotels across the Middle East and has a pipeline of 25 more due to open in the next five years representing an increase of 50 per cent. Africa too plays a key role its in business growth, and Starwood currently has the largest portfolio of upscale, upper-upscale and luxury hotels on the African continent, with a total of 38 properties with 12 new hotels in the pipeline.
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Wilde: banking on luxury properties such as the upcoming St. Regis Doha (below) to further drive growth. |
To mark an auspicious start to 2011, Starwood signed deals for five new hotels, including the new Sheraton Sharjah due to open in 2013. 2013 will also see the company expand its portfolio in Muscat with the addition of three new hotels under its W, Westin and Elemant brands. Le Meridien will enter Qatar in 2013 with the new Le Meridien Doha while W hotels plans to open four more W hotels in the region by the end of 2014 in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Amman and Muscat. The new Aloft will make its entrance into Saudi Arabia in 2013 with the Aloft Riyadh and Elemant will make its debut in Muscat. On the luxury front, the UAE’s iconic Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa recently joined Starwood’s Luxury Collection. The Luxury Collection plans to open two additional hotels in Aqaba and Ajman.
The Middle East was one of the most resilient markets for Starwood in 2010. “Towards the end of 2010, our revpar accelerated around the globe and occupancies did rise. Average occupancies were above 70 per cent in the Europe, Africa and the Middle East regions at the end of Q3. This was led by strong demand in major gateway cities such as Paris, London and Frankfurt and, as we have seen in past recoveries, the strength of gateway cities is spreading to secondary markets such as Warsaw, Turin, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City and Stuttgart. Leisure travel came back in early 2010 and by the middle of the year, business travel had returned to near normal levels after almost two years of retrenchment, which is critical as business travel drives 75 per cent of our total revenue,” added Wilde.
The brand also has some exciting new developments in Europe for 2011, including three new W Hotels, W London-Leicester Square in February, W St Petersburg in March and W Paris-Opera towards the end of the year. Additionally, the second Aloft Hotel in Europe will open in London in advance of the 2012 Olympics with the Aloft London ExCeL.
According to Wilde, there has been an increase in the number of visitors coming from China and India, both of which are set to be major feeder markets for our hotels in the Europe, Africa and Middle East region over the next 10 years. Wilde also stressed on the growth of the global middle class, which will have a major impact on the hospitality business. Another key trend is the rise of travellers from the ‘Y’ Generation. “These young, independent-minded travellers are looking for a great value, design-led place to stay with a focus on accessible technology, comfort and convenience – and we have developed the Aloft brand specifically for this group,” he added.