Abu Dhabi Fairmont targets 65% occupancy in 2011

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts’ first hotel in Abu Dhabi, the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, is targeting 65 percent average occupancy for 2011, after reaching around 55 percent average occupancy this year, the head of the property has said.

“For this year - our start-up year - we’ll be looking at about mid-50 percent occupancies, and we’ll probably be able to grow that to mid-60s next year,” Fairmont Bab Al Bahr general manager Henning Fries told Arabian Business.

“We’re not a small hotel – quite a large number of rooms on the market, and that seems like a reasonable number to us.”
Fries added that despite the influx of new hotels onto the local market, the Fairmont is set to turn a profit in its first year of operations.

“Now, it could have been even more profitable two years earlier and under completely different market conditions,” he added. “But running the occupancies that we do and given that the food and beverage [F&B] and conference side have done so well, it’s allowed us to be in positive territory in our first year of operations.”

The opening of Yas Island and the launch of new properties in the ‘between the bridges’ area of Abu Dhabi have added an estimated 1,200 rooms in the UAE capital in 2010, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

But Fries said that the F&B and conferencing facilities had contributed to about half of overall revenue, a higher proportion than is usual elsewhere in the world.

To add to that, the Fairmont will expand its conferencing facilities in 2011, as well as putting in more F&B outlets.
“There will be something more in terms of an entertainment venue as well as a few more culinary venues,” Fries said.
The Willow Stream Spa will also open in the first quarter of next year.

In addition to the Fairmont Dubai and the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is also working on other sites in the Abu Dhabi Marina and in Fujairah, as well as a property in Muscat.

However, Fries said that timelines for those locations are unclear as both venues are part of larger masterplanned projects.