Marketing efforts have paid off, and Omar reveals it was the local market that helped fill rooms during the typically low summer season.
He points to a combination of brand awareness and marketing the concept locally as contributing factors to the hotel achieving its budgeted targets ahead of schedule.
Saying this, the Russian market accounts for the lion’s share of demand at Rixos Bab Al Bahr, and this represented 35% of occupancy when Hotelier visited the property in October 2014.
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“Our main feeder markets (30-35%) are the Russian Federation countries. We have 20% from the German-speaking countries, another 15-20% from the UK, and the rest is mainly from Eastern Europe and Iran — each of which represent around 15%. We also have some MICE business and local business at the weekend,” he says.
“We have attracted nearly a 40% increase in Russian business to RAK since we opened because our brand is very strong in the Russian market. We brought additional charter business from Russia because they know the brand and what to expect even if they don’t know what to expect in Ras Al Khaimah,” he adds.
Since the interview, however, the fall of the Russian Rouble, coupled with the country’s plunging economy has seen tourism numbers take a hit and fewer Russians are visiting the UAE. Omar admits the resort has suffered too, but is now targeting other countries to make up for the numbers.
“Of course we have been impacted by the reduction of the Russian business. We are still trying to maintain 25% of incoming guests from Russia.
“However, we have a huge volume [of guests] and we are trying to look at opportunities from other markets, mainly from Eastern Europe and other countries. The RAK Tourism Authority is also supporting us and Air Arabia [which operates flights into Ras Al Khaimah Airport] has also started flying to some GCC countries and Iran, so we are targeting more areas,” Omar asserts.
In addition to market challenges, there were also several teething problems during the first year of operations. Not expecting the rush of local and international visitors during Eid, TripAdvisor reviews during the period suggested the hotel staff were clearly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of guests.
“Becoming full for the first time at the hotel, of course meant there was a bit of fine tuning needed, and we learned. For the past week and the coming 10 days, we are full, and we expect to handle it better because we learned from our experience.
“But to be fair, out of 2000 people, or 650 rooms full during four days, I think it is fair that I have maybe 10 rooms or guests who are not happy. Sometimes it is our fault, but 50% of the time, it’s that you came to a place without doing the research and just booked it without understanding what it is all about.”
Omar believes a lot of the complaints at the time also came from guests who did not realise the resort catered to families.
“Our guests need to know what kind of resort they are going to; we are a family resort. During Eid, we had nearly 500 kids between the ages of 0-14. So the families are very happy because they can see the kids enjoying themselves.
“I’m always walking around the resort, and I can see some couples annoyed; but why are they annoyed?
“Because they see 400 kids around them. So I would advise them, for example, to go to the Banyan Tree because this is their type of hotel, so it’s really about the perception.”
Omar is quick to say, however, that couples are also an important market for the resort, and to this end, Rixos Bab Al Bahr is set to introduce an adults-only pool in the first quarter of 2015 — however this will accompany the development of an additional children’s pool with slides and activities. More all-day dining restaurants to complement the six existing restaurants and four bars at the resort, are also on the cards for this year.
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