Thai hospitality firms seek opportunities in Middle East
Three Thai hospitality firms are propagating deeper into the Middle East as they seek to serve the high-end market all over the world.
Minor Hotel Group plans to penetrate Oman with two Anantara properties in Salalah and Muscat, the group told Hotelier Middle East magazine this week during the "Arabian Travel Market" in Dubai.
The Anantara in Jabal Akhdar will debut by year-end and Salalah will follow in the second quarter of next year.
Michael Marshall, chief commercial officer, said the Jabal Akhdar property was a beautiful hotel with stunning views. It’s even higher up than Alila Jabal Akhdar, another hotel in the area.
Salalah has huge potential as a destination because it’s so different, especially in the summer with rain.
"Oman has a very good reputation internationally, so I think we’ll see a mixture of business – international and Middle Eastern," Marshall said.
Peter Henley, president and chief executive officer of Onyx Hospitality Group, said that last year, the Middle East was the third-largest source market after Asia and Europe for arrivals across the entire group – not only Thailand.
The United Arab Emirates is the fourth international inbound market for Onyx hotels in Thailand after China, India and Britain.
The most popular hotels are the Amari Boulevard Bangkok, Amari Residence Bangkok and Shama Sukhumvit Bangkok.
The group manages 56 properties with more than 6,000 rooms in 10 countries across four diverse yet complementary brands – Saffron, Amari, Shama and OZO.
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The group reaches beyond its Thai roots to offer innovative management solutions across the Indian Ocean, Arabian Gulf and Asia-Pacific regions, Henley said.
"We are confident that 2015 will once again deliver great returns on our marketing and promotional investment in this region.
"We have many exciting projects in Asia and beyond, including expansion into aspirational destinations such as the Maldives and Bali.
"We are delighted to be opening our second OZO hotel in Sri Lanka in May, with the opening of OZO Kandy, and are looking forward to our first hotel in the Maldives with Amari Havodda Maldives in early 2016," he told the media.
Dusit International has signed management contracts with five more hotels in the Middle East, out of six existing properties. The new hotels will be in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Dusit Group will operate the new hotels under its established brands – Dusit Thani, dusitD2 and Dusit Residences.
Arabian Travel Market is showcasing 2,700 exhibitors, 64 national pavilions, and more than 35 seminar and technology theatre sessions, and expects 23,000 visitors.
"As we count down to Expo 2020 and a target of at least 20 million visitors annually as part of Tourism Vision 2020, and a forecast figure of 25 million visitors for the six-month-long expo, it’s impossible not to be swept up in the momentum of tourism development, both right here in the United Arab Emirates and across the region," said Nadege Noblet-Segers, exhibition manager at Arabian Travel Market.
"Despite the ongoing challenges facing neighbouring economies, the Middle East continues to break new ground when it comes to infrastructure expansion, government and private-sector initiatives and visitor engagement."
This year, global experts have shared the latest technological developments affecting the industry and spotlighted the theme for this year – family travel – which represents significant opportunity for the global tourism industry to capitalise on the trend towards multigenerational travel.
