Accor plans 54 hotels in Middle East by 2014

French hotel group Accor said Monday it plans to open five ibis hotels across the Gulf as part of a bid to grow its Middle East network to 54 hotels by 2014.

The chain currently operates nine of the budget brand hotels in the Middle East, with new units planned for Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Syria, the company’s regional managing director said.

“ibis remains one of the best performing brands in our portfolio,” said Christophe Landis, managing director, Accor Middle East.

Four of the five hotels are set to open by 2012, with the Ibis Aleppo Taj Halab in Syria set to open in 2014.

The expansion is expected to create up to 1,500 new jobs, Landis told Arabian Business.

Accor, which counts Novotel and Sofitel in its brand portfolio, signed a franchise deal Monday with Saudi real estate firm Al Mohammadia Almotahda to open the first ibis in the kingdom.

The 176-room ibis Riyadh will aim to secure a slice of Riyadh’s growing business and religious tourism market.
Landis said the hotel group is keen to expand into Jeddah, Damman and Makkah through franchise deals with local companies, in a bid to diversify from the crowded UAE market.

“[The UAE] market wasn’t growing, but the supply was coming. In January 2009, Abu Dhabi used to have 10,000 rooms, in January 2010, the growth of rooms reached 14,000,” he said. “So it had grown by 40 percent, mainly on Yas Island. Of course that had an effect on the market.”

Accor currently operates eight branded hotels in Saudi Arabia, but Landis said the hotel chain had struggled to meet government targets that demand 75 percent of the workforce is Saudi.

“For Saudisation, the agreement that we have[with the government] is to meet their requirements, which is, at the moment, about 35 percent, next year it’ll be 40 percent, and the year after, 65 percent,” he said.

“They are practical in this, because they agree that those targets might be very high. I think they can see that we’re serious and we want to cooperate.”

A key issue is overcoming prejudices against the hospitality industry, Landis said, adding that many Saudi workers viewed it as a “form of servitude”.

According to data provided by Accor, the group’s Middle East revenue rose by 8.23 percent in 2010 to $197.1m, up from $182.1m in the year-earlier period.

Accor opened 41 new hotels in the Asia Pacific region in 2010 and signed over 70 development contracts, a record number of new contracts for a single year for the company.