JW Marriott Marquis will add more than 1600 rooms to the market, with the first phase set to open in Q4
Dubai needs more big ‘transitional’ hotels to meet and boost MICE demand, the director of Dubai Convention Bureau has said.
Jerad Bachar, who has been with the bureau for more than four years, and has previously worked in the convection sector in North America, said: “Just to say we have 700-odd hotels and hotel apartments is one thing, but you really have to look at the dynamics of the hotels that are interested in this business.”
“In Dubai, one of the things we suffer with is that we don’t have a transitional hotel where these organisations that have been small but are growing can transition from the hotel into a convention centre. For example, if you have 2000 people in your conference, and you need breakouts and an exhibition centre and a place for food and beverage, there’s no hotel here that can self-contain that,” he added.
“For companies or an organisation that have attendances that are growing from 500 to 1000, or 1000 to 1500 – and these are the bread and butter for the majority of destinations; most are in that 500 to 1500-delegate range – they are forced to go into a convention centre,” Bachar explained.
He said that this is a disadvantage for both parties, as hotels could be getting revenue from not only rooms, but also the convention space and food and beverage. As a result, convention centres which cannot make extra revenues on rooms charge more, and could be keeping potential business away.
While he acknowledged that JW Marriott Marquis and Conrad Dubai would both be great for the destination, he explained, “if we were building the perfect hotel set up in Dubai, we’d have another three or four of those big transitional hotels”.
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