Banyan Tree will no longer be operating the TDIC-owned resort at the Eastern Mangroves development in Abu Dhabi, the company’s vice president of marketing told Hotelier at ATM.
The group has pulled out of plans to operate the Angsana-branded resort following disagreements between the owner and operator over how to develop the project.
Banyan Tree vice president marketing Luca Deplano said: “The Angsana was Eastern Mangroves and the owner is TDIC and we decided in a very friendly way not to proceed with the project.
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“Mostly the reason was that we have different visions of how to evolve that project. For the Angsana brand, the integration with the surrounding environment is still very, very important. The feel of an eco resort is very important,” explained Deplano.
“We feel that as part of the Banyan Tree and Angsana experience you need to connect with the surrounding environment. We felt that TDIC had different ideas of how to develop the project so we realised that this was not going to work. So we decided in very friendly terms to [cancel the contract,” he said.
Deplano added that Banyan Tree was looking at other opportunities with TDIC.
He said the group was in a period of “tremendous growth” that included the Middle East with projects underway in Oman and Jordan.
“We are planning to double the number of resorts across Banyan Tree and Angsana by 2014, so two and a half years from today,” said Deplano.
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