Artist's impression of The Royal Amwaj Resort on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, which will offer an all-inclusive option.
BT: The fact that Dubai hasn’t got that at the moment means we’re missing a trick. I don’t think that suddenly all the hotels in Dubai need to jump on the band wagon.
YZ: But they will, that’s what I’m saying. This is exactly how it starts; in any place that I know this is how it starts.
AH: For the record Jebel Ali Hotel has had an all-inclusive concept for the past year and not every resort in Dubai has followed their lead. It has existed here.
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BT: For a city hotel it definitely won’t work; for a beach hotel it depends on the surroundings. If you look at hotels that are more isolated like Jebel Ali, it works for that.
If you look at the Jumeirah Beach strip where there are a lot more dining options, possibly it wouldn’t work for those particular hotels, but we shouldn’t discount it altogether.
YZ: It is for sure an opportunity. There is a market segment there and it’s untouched. Somebody’s going to grab it and do it.
I don’t agree with the Jebel Ali issue. You need to have a strong global communication system and enough inventory in order to push that market that we’re actually talking about.
Normally this is sold by large tour operators that are landing charters into a destination and are able to put that into their brochures and programmes.
I’m saying that it’s an opportunity, but this is my opinion, if I was the ‘mayor’ of Dubai one thing that I would do for sure is I would never allow all-inclusive; it’s never going to happen!
As reported in the March issue of Hotelier Middle East, sales and marketing experts are a vocal bunch, passionate about the industry in which they work.
On topics including achieving value adds and rate parity, to working with the travel trade versus pushing direct bookings, they are likely to have firm and often differing opinions — as demonstrated in last month’s roundtable report (see It’s a customer’s world, pages 32-36, Hotelier Middle East, March 2011).
But the issue that caused the most consternation of all at this debate was that of all-inclusive hotels — and the impact this product offering would have should it be introduced to luxury markets like Dubai.
The subject was raised by Ibn Battuta Gate and Royal Amwaj director of sales and marketing Andrew Hughes, who revealed that Royal Amwaj on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, which is scheduled to open later this year, will offer an all-inclusive package.
This was vehemently objected to by Rezidor’s global director of sales and marketing Yigit Sezgin, who spoke from his experience of running all-inclusive properties in locations such as Egypt and Turkey.
Ibn Battuta Gate marketing manager Beth Thomas asserted that offering an all-inclusive package was simply a matter of enabling guest choice, while Kempinski regional director of sales Avsar Koc focused on its impact on the hotel’s business model.
This month, Hotelier picks up the debate and poses the question of the value of all-inclusive hotels to the wider industry, garnering feedback from the travel trade and destination management consultants to hotel investors and major operators.
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Apr 21, 2011 , United Kingdom
I think we need to stop comparing the Dubai all inclusive concept with hotels in destinations such as Egypt and Turkey. They are very different to aspirational Dubai and we should be looking at hotels in Mauritius or the Caribbean as a benchmark. Understandably, the tax and duty levels are diff...