CELEBRATING 40 years of service in the hospitality industry, the Mövenpick Hotels & Resort’s calendar of events for 2013-14 look busy with a slew of new projects set to come on board.
The group added its first hotel in China with the opening of the Mövenpick Hotel Enshi late last month and is set to open its sixth property in the UAE, the 168-room Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT), in October.
Even though the market has been affected in a few areas of the Middle East, like Syria, Andreas Mattmüller, chief operating officer for Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts Middle East and Asia, says that overall, business has been very good for the group especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Mattmüller explains that the group is looking towards other opportunities in the emirate. “We have five hotels in operation and we look forward to continue good performance on what we have achieved so far. Aside from the new hotel in JLT, we hope to announce the opening of Mövenpick Hotel & Spa Oceana on The Palm Jumeirah. We are also looking at other opportunities in the UAE. Dubai is very spread out and with two airports in the future we will see more business coming in.”
With 22 projects currently under construction or development by the group across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the group has chalked out major expansion plans, opening doors to competition.
Mattmüller says: “With many hotels opening up, we have massive competition. There are new players coming in the market and offering lower rates which bring the revenues down. It’s the same all over the world. We need to handle this. The good news is that our hotels are spread across corporate, Mice (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) and tourist segments.
“Everywhere that we have operations, regional travel is the key. In this region, we have a good response from GCC travellers. Other key arrivals are from the UK. The Russian market is also quite big and lately we have seen the emergence of the Indian and Chinese markets. China had about 48 million outbound travellers and that should grow to about 100 million by 2020. In the spring and autumn, we receive a lot of corporate guests and are also constantly catering to the needs of the Mice segment within our vast meeting spaces.”
Within the region, the 445-room property in Riyadh, due to open in 2014, will mark an important milestone for the group as it will be the 10th hotel in Saudi Arabia.
Another significant addition will be a 224-room in Colombo, also slated to open in 2014.
A spa destination resort has been signed up in the Himalayan foothill town of Dharamsala, India, expected to open in 2015. This is the second property of the group in India. “Two years back we opened our first hotel in India in Bangalore which has picked up and is doing very well.”
Other properties expected to open later this year include an 84-room resort in Palawan, Philippines and four properties in Thailand – a 26-room lodge style resort and a 268-room city hotel in Chiang Mai as well as 89-room resort in Koh Samui and 264-room resort in Pattaya. China will see a couple of openings in 2014-15. Further properties expected to open in 2015 include two in Bangladesh (in Cox’s Bazaar and Dhaka), two in Thailand (Bangkok and Hua Hin) as well as one each in Bali, Malaysia, Mongolia and Vietnam. Aside from these, Africa will also see five new properties, expected to open within the end of this year and 2014.
Mövenpick has introduced several in-house projects which have garnered international acclaim including a healthy kid’s menu which was launched last year. The group also engages in using local produce such as sourcing vegetables from local farmers in the intention to offer guests a fresh and healthy dining experience. Special care is taken to avoid fish that are on the endangered list and genetically modified products in the menu while offering guests the choice of gluten-free products.
“Wherever we go, we want to have hotels with a sense of place. We want to integrate well into the local environment and support the local community. By buying locally grown vegetables, purchasing locally-available building materials – we try and give back to the local community – this part of our philosophy,” adds Mattmüller. The group also engages in environmentally friendly initiatives and all its hotels are Green Globe certified with its Jordan property having the highest score out of the 600 hotels worldwide that have been certified by the Green Globe Organisation.
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Mövenpick shared 40 of its favourite real-life stories from across its hotels, and over the years since 1973 including ones about a refugee who escaped the civil war in Congo to training in Mövenpick kitchens, a waiter who arranges desert trips for families in his spare time, and a couple in Egypt who returned to the same resort 40 times on their holidays.
These stories are on the group’s website for patrons and loyalists to read and enjoy.