LIVE FROM ARABIAN TRAVEL MARKET 2014: DAY FOUR

Welcome to Hotelier's rolling live coverage of the fourth and final day of Arabian Travel Market 2014. We'll bring you all the latest announcements from the event at Dubai World Trade Centre, exclusive news and essential industry gossip...

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06.00pm: And that's just about it for the day, and indeed ATM 2014. It's been a great few days and the whole Hotelier team has been working hard to cover all the breaking news. Thank you for joining us and make sure you keep checking HotelierMiddleEast.com for all the latest industry news.

05.35pm: They've had a busy few days, so it's appropriate that one of the final pieces of news from ATM comes from Hilton Worldwide, which has signed an agreement with long-standing business partner Mohamed Ruqait Real Estate for a new resort property on Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah. This of course follows on from a deal announced earlier this week for a new Hilton Garden Inn adjacent to Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, as well as the news that it will manage a 366-room resort being developed on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.

05.05pm: Le Méridien Dubai is no more! Following completion of new rooms and meeting facilities at the hotel, the property shall henceforth be known as Le Méridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre. Among the changes is an extension to house Le Royal Club as well as an expanded 2,500 sq m Grand Ballroom that can accommodate up to 1,500 guests and six new meeting venues, bringing the total to 21.

04.40pm: Minor Hotel Group, operator of brands including Anantara, Avani and Per Aquum, is continuing its focus on the Middle East, with work progressing at both its Doha and Salalah Anantara resorts. The Anantara Doha Island Resort has been renamed as Banana Island Resort by Anantara and will feature a host of wellness, spa and sports activites, including a surf pool, dive centre, nine-hole golf course, cinema, eight-lane ten pin bowling alley and a marina for 30 boats. Ten boast a day are planned to take residents and tourists from the mainland to use the facilities. It will also feature the first over-water villas in Qatar, just as Anantara The Palm Dubai brought over-water villas to Dubai. In Oman, a GM is being appointed for the Salalah resort, with that project moving forward, revealed Michael Marshall, who has recently been promoted to chief commercial officer, Minor Hotel Group. The group is also targeting more expansion in Dubai, this time for its Avani brand, which is also looking for growth in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

04.05pm: There’s a lot of talk surrounding Damac Hotels this week, with the launch of new brand Naja and a sharia compliant property. Hotelier caught up with Niall Mc Loughlin, senior vice president, Damac Holding Co. LLC and Shaun Langdon, senior vice president, Damac Hotels to find out how business was going at the first property to be opened, Damac Maison Dubai Mall Street, which Langdon says has exceeded expectation with average rate of AED749 in Q1, beating the AED739 average for its comp set. More apartments have now gone into the rental pool, with Mc Loughlin saying that now 200 out of 355 apartments are available, with Damac achieving double digit yield for owners. As well as the expansion in Dubai, where six more apartment buildings will open this year, there are also two properties in Riyadh, one Paramount-branded and one Fendi-branded, both operated by Damac Maison, and a Damac Maison planned for Qatar.

03.40pm: We’ve just heard of an exciting new lifestyle destination in Dubai! Purobeach, which already operates an “urban oasis” at Conrad Dubai, is opening its first beach club in Dubai, at Jebel Ali Golf Resort. Details are under wraps but the venue is likely to open after the summer.

3:15 Zaya Retreats is on select recruitment drive for its property in Abu Dhabi. Director of operations Stephen Gee notes that the success of the property revolves around hand picking the right people and is keen not to hire anyone already in the hospitality cycle. The group is also to open three further properties in the country (two in Dubai and one between Dubai and Abu Dhabi).

03.05pm: Ritz-Carlton has also revealed that it will finally hit the 100-hotel mark in 2016. In total, there are 15 openings planned, with growth focused on Asia, Africa and Middle East. Lorri Rippstein, vice president sales and marketing, Europe, Middle East and Africa, The Ritz-Carlton, said five of the new hotels were in the MENA region The Nile Ritz-Carlton, Cairo in Egypt; The Ritz-Carlton, Tunis in Tunisia; The Ritz-Carlton, Marrakech; The Ritz-Carlton, Rabat; and the Tamuda Bay Reserve in Morocco. With 38,000 employees currently, Rippstein said the company was “hyper focused on finding the right talent for these hotels”.

Continue to the next page for more updates from earlier on...

02:50pm Taj's director of sales Ritika Gupta popped by the stand and is gearing up for the group's newest opening in Dubai, expected to open by the end of the year in Business Bay.

02.45pm: JA Resorts & Hotels announced a new hotel in Dubai yesterday, a third property at the JA Jebel Ali Golf Resort. However, following a chat with David Thomson, chief operating officer, JA Resorts & Hotels, Hotelier can reveal there are actually THREE new hotels planned for Dubai. These will both be located at the Al Sahra Desert Resort, owned by JA parent company Dutco. One hotel will be very high-end, says Thomson, while the second will be more traditional. The new hotel at Jebel Ali Golf Resort, meanwhile, will be a four-star product, aimed at leveraging the sports activities at the hotel and accommodating sports teams during peak season. Having now opened hotels in Seychelles and Maldives, the company is also focused on more international growth, with Phuket and Sri Lanka key targets, as well as Scotland!

02.30pm: Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Dubai have piloted some new F&B initiatives recently, focused on positioning select outlets as standalone entities and trialling new social media inititiaves. At Ritz-Carlton DIFC, Cafe Belge is being heavily promoted, while Blue Jade is the pilot project at Ritz-Carlton Dubai; the aim being to make sure the outlets are more visible within the local community. The Ritz-Carlton Dubai GM Raul Salcido said he wanted to change the perception that Ritz-Carlton’s outlets are just for special occasions and show residents that Blue Jade is an outlet they can return to time and again. As part of the hotel’s upgrade and expansion project, Salcido added that a new, bigger, more fun brunch concept would also be introduced at the new all day dining.

02.05pm: Emaar Hospitality Group’s lifestyle dining division is also a focus for COO Philippe Zuber. The group has just opened the greatly anticipated Cut by Wolfgang Puck at The Address Downtown Dubai, and Zuber says more celebrity chef partnerships are on the cards. Another exciting upcoming opening is that of Dubai’s first Cipriani restaurant, a standalone venue next to The Address Downtown Dubai due to open early next year.

13.30pm: Amadeus has launched its latest global report - ‘Shaping the Future of Travel - Macro trends driving industry growth over the next decade' - which suggests that overnight visitor flows are expected to grow at 5.4% per annum over the next decade worldwide, significantly faster than GDP growth at 3.4%. However, the Middle East and Africa region is expected to witness even higher growth, at an annual rate of 11.9%, faster than the 8.4 % growth registered over the previous 10-year period.

12.55pm: Interested in working for one of the Middle East’s home-grown hotel brands? As Emaar Hospitality Group focuses on expansion, with four brands now under its belt — The Address, Vida, Manzil and Dubai Inn — chief operating officer Philippe Zuber says the company will need to double its workforce within the next four years, meaning thousands of new jobs will be created. The company currently employs 4200 staff. With regard to expansion, Zuber said The Address brand was now well established enough for the company to pursue growth through management contracts, with Abu Dhabi one of the locations on the target list. Address Hotels are already under development in Istanbul, Kenya and Egypt, and Zuber says more international growth is now a priority.

12.20pm: Emirates Group, a major exhibitor here at ATM, has just released its annual report for the financial year ending March 31 and it makes for interesting reading on the hotel front. With the first full year of operations at its flagship JW Marriott Marquis property under its belt, revenue from hotel operations was up 68.8% to AED395 million (US $107.5 million). It also helped the group increase food and beverage revenue up 24.5% to AED 625 million ($170.2 million).

11.55am: We managed a catch up with Doros Theodorou, commercial director, EMEA, Business Listings, Tripadvisor, who revealed some worrying stats about UAE hoteliers. Only half (51%) of the 760 hotels listed on Tripadvisor are registered owners, meaning only half read and reply to reviews left by guests. Across the Middle East, this percentage drops to 38%. On the plus side, some locally-based hotel companies, like Jumeirah and Emaar Hospitality Group, have partnered with Tripadvisor to enhance their listing, adding special offers and promotions to their page for example. Doros is hoping to encourage others to do the same; after all, according to research from PhocusWright, 50% of people will not stay somewhere without reading reviews, and they especially look for management responses.

11.25am: Accor is heavily focused on enhancing its booking process and overall guest experience via digital technology. Jean-Luc Chretien, executive vice president sales, distribution and loyalty, says the company’s new e check-in / check-out option will be rolled out to 1000 hotels by the end of the year, including many of the 65 hotels in the Middle East, across all brands, from Ibis to Sofitel. He also revealed increases in online bookings, with 30-35% of bookings coming via online, and a rise in mobile bookings, which now stand at 3-4%.

10.40am: Dusit International COO David Shackleton has said the company will bring the DusitD2 contemporary lifestyle brand to the Middle East with a first rebranded property to be signed within a month. It could happen as soon as July.

10.15am: Earlier this week we updated you on some exciting developments in the Middle East for Swiss-Belhotel. The president and chairman of the Hong Kong-based company, Gavin Faull, spoke to us about an upcoming announcement on a joint venture in the region and, intriguingly, plans for a hotel school which it will manage.

09.30am: As hinted at earlier in the week, HotelierMiddleEast.com can now reveal that Shaza Hotels has just signed a new hotel…at the prestigious marina-front of The Wave Muscat in Oman! This is the company’s second hotel planned for Oman, with Shaza Salalah signed two years ago. Both properties are being developed by Oman-based Tameer Investment, headed by CEO Sulaiman Bin Masoud Al-Harthy.

09.15am: Here’s some gossip from Hilton Worldwide. The Hilton-branded hotel signed several years ago on The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai is finally on track! Construction is set to start in a couple of weeks, with Hilton Palm Jumeirah expected to be up and running within four years. The 500-room hotel will join the Hilton Worldwide operated Waldorf Astoria on The Palm, which opened at the end of 2013.

09.00am: Thanks again for joining us for day four of ATM. It may be the final day of proceedings, but there is still undoubtedly plenty of news to get through over the next few hours before at the Hotelier team can finally switch off their dictaphones, put down their pens and close their laptops.