Looking ahead
So what does the future hold for Jumeirah Group? With 27 openings over the next three years world-wide from the Americas to Asia, the operations team will be very busy indeed. Some of these projects include incorporating residences under Jumeirah Living.
“We see it [Jumeirah Living] as complementing the Stay Different brand, and in most cases Jumeirah Living projects will be part of mixed-use developments, so there will be certain exceptions to this, particularly as we already have the World Trade Centre Residences in Dubai.
In certain locations, where we are well established we may also consider some stand-alone Jumeirah Living properties and some Jumeirah Stay Different projects,” reports Lawless.
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While Jumeirah’s new hotel brand, Venu is currently on hold in order to focus on the Stay Different brand, the future is firmly focused on expansion.
“Within the next seven months we anticipate opening Jumeirah Creekside (Dubai), Jumeirah at Etihad Towers (Abu Dhabi), Jumeirah Vittaveli (Maldives), Jumeirah Messilah Beach (Kuwait) and Jumeirah Bilgah Beach Hotel, Baku (Azerbaijan), and this will bring us up to a total of 19 properties in operation,” says Lawless.
Closer to home in Dubai, investment into existing properties will take place. “We are consistently investing into our products. We have two stories at the moment.
One is a major room refurbishment on its way at Jumeirah Beach Hotel so we are doing all the rooms over the next two years….and then we are doing the same with Jumeirah Emirates Towers — we are doing a soft room refurbishment on all the rooms there,” enthuses Pertl.
From a sales perspective, 2012 will focus on the meetings, incentives, conference and events (MICE) segment.
Building on the 500% increase between 2010 and 2011 (year to date) witnessed at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, driving the MICE market will also be a key strategy for the city hotels such as Jumeirah Emirates Towers and the new Jumeirah Creekside Hotel opening in January, 2012.
Similarly in Europe, Jumeirah Frankfurt is preparing for approximately 30% in group business to support revenues for its ballroom and meeting rooms.
While it’s interesting to note that the UAE is in the top five markets for the Dubai hotels, the continuous development of newer markets will also be crucial. “New markets, such as China and India, have responded very positively to the Jumeirah brand promise of ‘Stay Different’.
And this is reflected in the fact that we have seen increases of over 50% in business from these markets. The hallmarks of the Jumeirah philosophy make it easier to persuade travellers who have experienced our hotels and resorts in Dubai to try our other properties,” explains Schreiber.
Jumeirah is often seen as one of the success stories of the region; a brand that has positioned itself within the competitive luxury market and continues to thrive.
Such success is represented by its multitude of awards including Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards, not to mention a range of Hotelier Middle East and Caterer Middle East Awards. But, what makes it so successful?
“It comes back to our culture — which is based on the people that stay with us, and the people that stay with us are serviced by the people that work for us. Therefore, as we call our employees our “colleagues”, they are probably one of the most important aspects in terms of how we look after our guests and how the reputation of Jumeirah falls,” says Lawless.
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