
REZIDOR SAS Hospitality has announced that two of the world’s first Missoni hotels, for which the group has a licence agreement with Italian fashion house Missoni, will be in Kuwait and Dubai.
Hotel Missoni Dubai will have 250 rooms and is scheduled to open at the end of 2008 on The Palm’s Crescent. It will be designed as a Mediterranean village with a private harbour. The 200-room hotel Missoni Kuwait will be Kuwait City’s first lifestyle development at the Symphony complex and is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2007. TTN spoke to Jean-Marc Busato, vice-president Middle East, Rezidor SAS Hospitality, to find out more:
Why pick Dubai and Kuwait for a Missoni?
For a lifestyle brand, the right location is one of the key elements. Therefore the world-famous The Palm, Jumeirah Dubai is the ultimate beachfront development ranked alongside the world’s leading resort destinations. Hotel Missoni Kuwait, with its exceptional architecture, will be a landmark in the city.
Expansion plans for the Missoni brand?
With the target of 30 Missoni hotels under operation or development by 2010 worldwide, locations like Cairo and Beirut could also be part of the global roll out plan for this lifestyle brand. The development strategy for the brand will concentrate on city centre locations and resort destinations. Target destinations include London, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan, Barcelona, St Petersburg and Istanbul.
So why the sudden trend in luxury hotels?
It is a trend for fashion houses to explore commercial opportunities in other industries, that has been welcomed by the public. People are now more aware of haute couture, it is now more accessible, and the public appreciate the finesse and history of a fashion house.
How will the Missoni signature be translated across the hotels?
The hotels will be an extension of the core brand Missoni and will integrate with Missoni fashion, the Missoni Home collection and the new fragrance range. To ensure quality and brand consistency, the interiors of all Missoni hotels will be conceptualised, styled and controlled by Italian design icon Matteo Thun, and locally implemented by trusted partners of Rezidor SAS.
What will a typical Missoni hotel be like?
The hotels will be reflective of contemporary Italian life and style, and will bring particular focus to the bathrooms, bedrooms, bars, restaurants – cucinas, spas, and the whole service culture and environment.
Rezidor aims to develop some 700 hotels by 2015, triple its current portfolio. Where will these hotels be? Where are the guests coming from?
The announcement of Hotel Missoni to the region will soon be followed by the introduction of our easy and clean mid-market experience at Park Inn and top-of-the-line luxury at Regent hotels. We have announced two Park Inns in Saudi Arabia and a Radisson SAS in Al Madinah. Kuwait will see the opening of a Regent and Hotel Missoni. We will manage two properties on The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai and continue to look at actively for more opportunities in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Lebanon and Libya.
As a global company we continuously strive to turn new markets into core markets. We are entering new emerging markets such as CIS, Russia and Africa. In the Middle East we see great potential as governments shift income sources from oil to tourism. Intra-regional traffic is still on the rise, encouraging short stays. Finally, more and more direct flights to Europe’s capitals will see arrivals increase.
What happened to Rezidor’s plan for a Cerruti in Dubai?
Missoni will be the lifestyle brand of Rezidor SAS Hospitality Worldwide. Technically we still have a an agreement for the Cerruti brand however a dispute with the brand owner and the Cerruti family made us look for a fashion house could provide us a better proposition and foundation for a worldwide partnership.