But it’s the mountain itself that provides a lot of recreation and adventure opportunities to guests. Milton tells Hotelier: “One of the key attractions that we are building on-site, is our Jabal activity wall, which will be rock-climbing abseiling, via ferrata, which will give a safe but adventurous edge; it’s fantastic for all fitness levels and all age groups. The route is not too high but enough of a challenge to be an experience.
“We also have the indoor Freedom Climber, the fifth resort outside of the USA to have a revolving rock wall.”
The resort also offers three signature hiking trails, and Omanis are on-board as guides, who also, she reveals, start a fire on the hike to make local Omani cardamom coffee. Milton adds: “We want to give guests the feeling of true Omani hospitality on the trail.”
When it comes to long-term development, Milton is keen to target schools and corporate businesses for activities such as camping. She also notes that the mountain offers lots of potential for education with the plateau on which the hotel is located being covered in fossils. “We are in a very unique location and have set quite a few attraction points. We really want to get our guests out and about, enjoying the ‘Green Mountain’, which is very well known in the area,” explains Milton.
SOURCE MARKETS
Echoing Milton, the rest of the team is confident that the location is perfect, and will drive a lot of demand for stays at the property. Darwin says: “We’ve got great facilities that cater to the GCC market and we understand that the UAE will be a prime market for us. It’s only a 4.5 hour drive, and part of that drive is driving through the beautiful mountain, it’s inspiring. We’ve got 33 beautiful villas with complete privacy and they have their own pool. For GCC families, it’s perfect for size and privacy. Five of our villas have their own driveway. We cater to all potential guests but it’s very accommodating for Arab guests.” Gandhi also asserts that privacy will be an attractive factor, as well as the halal food.
Darwin says that there will be an opening offer for predominantly GCC and Oman residents. The next big markets, he adds, are Europe, UK Germany, Italy and France. “There’s also huge group business in terms of weddings, seminars and team building.”
Gandhi notes: “Weekends are going to be very popular especially for the GCC market, so two to three nights is going to be our average length of stay. Once the European market opens up, it would become longer; there is potential for extended stays.”
Darwin concludes: “I’ve had the privilege with Anantara to see many beautiful resorts that we have in Asia and the Middle East. I’ve also frequented many beautiful hotels, and I’ve not experienced anything like this before.
“I tell all the managers, ‘this will define who we are’. It’s the highest hotel in the Middle East, one of the highest in the world, one of the few hotels that’s perched on the edge of a cliff, and we’ll all tell our grandchildren about this resort.”
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