Four Seasons completes 16 years in the region this year, a period during which the Canadian hotel operator has grown steadily. Or as Four Seasons president, hotel operations of Europe, Middle East and Africa Christian Clerc says: “The growth that we have had globally couldn’t have been [possible] without the Middle East.”
Clerc’s journey to the top in Four Seasons mirrors that of the operator in this market. “I joined in 2000 at a senior level, as hotel manager [at the Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC]. The growth was natural thereafter; I enjoyed what I did and was very curious. I was willing to travel and worked in Latin America, North America, Europe and Middle East.”
Four Seasons has been associated with luxury since its inception, and Clerc, a Swiss native, says it was the prime reason he was drawn to the brand 16 years ago. “I never started thinking I would be in this job, as president of Europe, Middle East and Africa. I joined Four Seasons because of what it represented at the time to me: the best company. I was attracted to the level of service along with the quality of the hotel.”
Aft the time of going to print, Four Seasons had 98 operating properties worldwide with the number set to change rather soon given the projects it has in the pipeline. “We are sitting at DIFC, which is an interesting new property for us, because [we have another one] at Jumeirah Beach, which is like a resort. And this is urban with a much smaller footprint. Hence, we have two properties in one market which are very different,” Clerc says.
“We have just opened in DIFC and Abu Dhabi will follow soon. We will also be opening in Kuwait [planned for December this year]. If you take the Middle East including North Africa we have 16 properties, four in Egypt and two in Morocco. That shows our commitment to this part of the world. It is an extremely important market for us and our hotels represent what this company is all about.”
Clerc mentions the term ‘gateway cities’ a few times while talking about the company’s growth strategy, and with the Bahrain property that went live last year, Four Seasons would be present in all GCC countries barring Oman by the end of this year.
Clerc hints that the company is looking at Oman’s leisure potential. He says: “If you think about Oman, it is definitely another country we would like to explore on the leisure side. We are exploring some desert experiences for the future. We are looking at all these dimensions and there is nothing off limits in terms of exploring.”
Clerc, however, does not reveal whether Four Seasons has concrete plans for Iran. “You have many locations that international brands could not do business in the past and they are starting to open — Cuba, Iran. So, being an international company we keep exploring new [locations]. There are no limitations to what we are exploring, as long as we can do business there.
“I don’t want to give a wrong sense of information because the truth is we look at so many different opportunities and we do very few, since the ones we do have to enhance the brand. Our approach is that our latest property has to be our greatest property. If you take our DIFC property, everything that we have learnt from our 20-plus years has been incorporated — some of it is hardware and some software,” he says, pointing out to the interiors of the new property which have been designed by Adam Tihany.
The DIFC property in Dubai has been described as a ‘boutique hotel’ since it offers about 100-odd rooms and “occupies a small footprint”. Clerc feels it’s not necessarily a model that Dubai will have to adopt even though finding prime space in the city is going to be challenging.
“For us it is all about interpreting the experience expected of us. We have everything from a tented camp to a lodge in Tanzania to the Four Seasons in New York which is this iconic tower to resorts like Jumeirah Beach. And, every one of our hotels is built to the location. Hence, we do not have a cookie cutter approach to our properties. We use different designers every time,” Clerc says.
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