Regent Hotels eyes major comeback in Kingdom
After an absence of two and a half years, Regent Hotels & Resorts is back with a vengeance, with its sights set on finding three properties to manage in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Hua Hin.
The firm has no specific time frame. It will start with Phuket, where its property under management will stage its grand opening in December.
President Ralf Ohletz said yesterday that it was hard to play a bigger role in the Kingdom because market competition had become more intense and prime locations, especially in Bangkok, were even more difficult to secure. Its expansion plan will go step by step when the right time comes.
Thailand is an important market under the company’s expansion plan. It will look for 30 more properties worldwide to manage, up from seven at present.
Half of them are in Asia, including Thailand, China and South Korea.
Southeast Asia is also an important market. The firm is scouting opportunities in the region, especially in Myanmar, to follow the implementation of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.
Bangkok is the one place where the firm wants to establish a presence because the capital is an important market for tourism.
Phuket’s tourism outlook remains stable, thanks largely to direct flights from abroad and also the growing services from low-cost carriers to drive room demand.
Regent Phuket Cape Panwa offers 105 rooms and expects to keep 50 per cent of them occupied in the first year of operation.
The Regent Hotel chain disappeared from Thailand after Four Seasons Hotel bought it from Grand Formosa International Corporation, based in Taipei.
Later, Grand Formosa International bought it back to manage itself and started to resume its business profile in Thailand.
