As part of the resort's F&B overhaul Dining on the Sand will be rebranded Spice Market with an Arabic kitchen. As part of the resort's F&B overhaul Dining on the Sand will be rebranded Spice Market with an Arabic kitchen.

Better and busier
 The ultimate aim of the new initiatives, Philipson says simply, is a busier Zighy Bay: “The success of Six Senses resorts like Soneva Fushi, Soneva Gili is invention.

The reason that our existing hotels do so well is every year something new is added, some new element that keeps the regular guests coming back and also entertained with new experiences, so it will be a general evolution of the resort as opposed to building something and saying ‘that’s got to do you for the next 10 years’.”

Business to date hasn’t been “too bad”, he says: “We’re averaging around 40% with an average rate at US $850 and now we have to try and maintain that rate and get the occupancy up to 60%. We try to do a lot of packages, twin with Muscat or Dubai and Zighy,” says Philipson.

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“We understand that Dubai has amazing attractions and we’ve already talked with the Armani hotel to do a twin centre because visually they’re so different, we’ll package them up so two nights in Armani, two nights in Zighy Bay; we’re talking to a couple of other hotels.”

In terms of other developments in the region, Philipson says that Six Senses is “looking for a couple of other opportunities”.

“There’s still a few MoUs in place but basically everything has gone very quiet because of the crisis, not because we don’t want to but the owners are nervous about the property markets,” he explains.

Meanwhile, the Tented Camp project at Zighy Bay, launched by Six Senses, Horizons Nouveaux and Al Marsa Musandam back in 2010, is being “reconceptualised”.

“We’re not doing them in the traditional format at the moment, we’re trying to create them into a standalone brand,” says Philipson.

“We were looking at it, the original mock up that we did looked a little bit makeshift, we took some feedback from clients and if they are paying $800-$1000 a night they want something a little bit classier. It’s being reconceptualised and will be launched and rebranded by Six Senses. It’s still on the cards but in a different format.”

For now though, he is focused on developing the Zighy Bay resort and the destination itself. “We’re trying hard to promote Oman, to join the dots in a three-hour radius,” says Philipson. “It’s an evolution.”