The Rocco Forte Collection, Europe’s largest luxury hotel group, will be among the exhibitors at this year’s ILTM.
The Middle East collection will focus on bringing awareness about the Middle Eastern markets ahead of the opening a 280 room property in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2009 and a 198 room property in Jeddah in 2010.
Recently several of The Rocco Forte Collection’s senior management team hosted a series of trade luncheons and meetings with regional hospitality experts to highlight the Collection’s forthcoming launch in the Middle East and its already well-established name across Europe.
“We are seeing robust growth as well as repeat leisure and business travel coming from Gulf residents across our European properties, and are compiling data to better help the industry understand the specific tastes and desires of travellers from these markets,” said Mark Allvey, the Collection’s global sales director.
“The current economic climate provides us with a key opportunity to discuss trends in high-end travel from the Middle East to Europe and the best way to address the needs of The Rocco Forte Collection’s guests in the coming months,” he added.
The Gulf is continuing to grow as a key outbound travel destination, currently ranking 10th in terms of hotel bookings worldwide. With this in mind, The Rocco Forte Collection has tailored services specifically to the Arab market in many of its properties, including: Arabic speaking staff, a selection of Arabic channels and newspapers, Arabic menus, and Halal dining in its restaurants.
According to a recent study the growth of travel from and within the Middle East is increasing significantly, with more than $30 billion spent per year by Middle Eastern travellers in international markets. Outbound travel from the UAE into Europe has increased by 20 per cent this past summer compared to the same time last year, and outbound trips from the Middle East in general are expected to double between 2005 and 2020.
“We have seen a 100 per cent year on year increase in traffic from the Middle East with Saudi Arabia and the UAE topping the list of growth – UAE is 260 per cent up year on year across all our hotels – some hotels, for example Brown’s in London, have seen growth of more than 400 per cent from the Middle East,” Allvey said.
“This increase at Brown’s Hotel reflects the fact that the UK is the second most popular destination for UAE travellers to visit after the Far East and Germany and Switzerland follow soon after.
We have also seen an increase in excess of 200 per cent from the UAE to the Hotel Astoria in St Petersburg – predominately due to business trips,” he added.
The Rocco Forte Collection was established in 1996 to create a group of luxury hotels in Europe. The hotel collection currently comprises 11 properties, soon to be 16.