THE UAE’s hotel map is set to be redrawn in the last quarter of the year, with some 25 new hotels planning to open their doors.
At least half of these will be in the country’s newest business magnet, Abu Dhabi.
The UAE daily Emirates Business 24/7 reported that the new hotels will bring nearly 7,000 new rooms to the market. But all eyes in the UAE will be on Abu Dhabi, which will be home to several new brands. After Dubai was hit by the financial crisis last year, the capital has emerged as the strongest market in the federally governed UAE.
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose 6.9 per cent from January to June this year over the same period in 2008. The emirate is one of only two regional markets showing positive RevPAR growth, the other being Beirut.
“Abu Dhabi is indeed a very different market from Dubai. Through June 2009, the average daily room rate (ADR) declined 24 per cent in Dubai and climbed 14.6 per cent in Abu Dhabi, as compared to the first six months of 2008. At the same time, occupancy fell 15.5 per cent in Dubai and just 6.7 per cent in Abu Dhabi,” Jan Freitag, Smith Travel Research (STR) vice president, was quoted as saying by the UAE daily.
The city aims to double room supply over the next three years as it diversifies its economy away from hydrocarbons and boosts its tourism industry with such attractions as Louvre and Guggenheim museums and a Ferrari World theme park. It hopes to attract 2.3 million hotel guests a year by 2012, up from the current level of 1.5m.
“The good economic fundamentals mean the Abu Dhabi five-star segment is one of the best performing markets worldwide, offering high levels of occupancy and average daily rates for hoteliers,” Arnaud Andrieu, a vice president at CB Richard Ellis Hotels Middle East, told The National newspaper. He said the luxury market in Abu Dhabi still remained undersupplied, demonstrated by the fact that demand was still inelastic, meaning that occupancy in Abu Dhabi’s hotels had grown even though prices had increased.
“We suppose that the Abu Dhabi luxury market will reach an efficient equilibrium between demand and supply by 2013,” he said.
More than 3,000 new rooms are projected to come online in the fourth quarter, taking the emirate’s inventory to 17,000 by the end of the year.
Most of these are being rushed into completion in time for the UAE’s first-ever Formula One race, the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to be held on Yas Island, a $36-billion mixed-use development offering beaches, resorts, shopping facilities and attractions such as golf courses, a polo club, a water park and a Ferrari theme park.
Seven new hotels are sited on the island, all expecting to open with 100 per cent occupancy for the race. Among these are two Rotana-managed properties, the four-star deluxe Yas Island Rotana and the economy Centro Yas Island, the first Centro-branded hotel. IHG will also open two properties, a new Crowne Plaza (408 rooms) and a Staybridge Suites (165 units), as will Rezidor, which rolls out a Radisson Blu (404 rooms) and the UAE’s first Park Inn (204 units). At the top of that pyramid will be the 500-unit signature Yas Hotel, developed and operated by real estate major Aldar.
Aiming for a slice of the conference action are two more properties, the five-star Fairmont Bab Al Bahr and Starwood’s economy Aloft Hotel, both near or at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre later this year. The 369-room Fairmont will launch two restaurants run by celebrity chef Marco Pierre White, while the 408-room Aloft hopes to shake up the limited-service segment with a product aimed at savvy, design-conscious consumers.
October will also see the opening of Abu Dhabi’s most adventurous and dramatic hotel venture yet. Anantara’s Qasr al Sarab Desert Resort will be the first hotel to open in the Rub ’al Khaali, the famous Empty Quarter that is shared by the UAE and Saudi Arabia and is the largest uninterrupted stretch of desert in the world.
The 196-room fortress-themed property promises five-star service in the desert, with an offering that includes Bedouin heritage, spectacular scenery (with some sand dunes four times as high as the Tower of Pisa) and Asian-style luxury in the form of private pools, a spa and hammam and personal butlers.
By Clark Kelly