LUXURY hotelier Jumeirah Group, owned by the ruler of Dubai, is looking at doubling its properties under management globally by early 2012 and tapping into growing tourism demand, its executive chairman said.
“We will open in Kuwait, Majorca, and Azerbaijan. We will almost double the number of hotels under management for Jumeirah in a 14 month period,” Gerald Lawless told the Middle East Investment Summit held last month in Dubai, UAE.
“We have a few other potential projects ‘bubbling.’ Some of them are in Europe,” he said, adding the Jumeirah Group would count 20 hotels by the end of the first quarter 2012.
“It is looking very good for the future bookings for the winter period. Tourism is holding up very well,” Lawless said.
He said it was difficult to say whether Dubai is seeing an additional influx of tourists to Dubai due to regional unrest.
Average room rates currently stand at Dh1,700 ($462.8), up five per cent compared with the same period last year.
Occupancy levels at Jumeirah’s hotels in Dubai reached 80.5 per cent, Lawless said, up six per cent from a year earlier. Lawless said 20 per cent of visitors came from the United Kingdom, 14 per cent from Russia, and there were increasing numbers from China.
Lawless added that the company had no plans to issue an initial public offering (IPO) or a bond issue.
“We are very happy with our levels of financing and debt at the moment,” he said. “The funding positions are not difficult for us, we are in a strong position where we have investors who own the hotels, they build the hotels and we brand them.”