Swiss-Belhotel International has over 3500 rooms planned for the Middle East. The group’s new senior vice president operations and development for the Middle East, Africa & India Laurent Voivenel told Hotelier at the Arabian Travel Market 2017.
Voivenel said: “Swiss-Belhotel International currently manages a portfolio of over 145 hotels, resorts and projects in 23 countries across 14 brands. We are one of the world's fastest-growing international hotel and hospitality management groups.”
Voivenel also gave an insight into his time with Hospitality Management Holdings. “HMH was a great company, I worked with them for over three years. But HMH is now the past, and I look forward to develop Swiss-Bel. I have been given the freedom to take certain decisions,” he said.
Speaking about the development pipeline, Voivenel gave an insight in to the market segmentation. “We see our long term goal as the best alternative to blue chip hotel management corporations. The region definitely needs more quality mid-market hotels in order to widen its appeal to growing middle class in the region.
“60% of our upcoming projects in the Middle East are in the upscale four-star category, 15 % is in the luxury five-star category and the remaining is in the serviced residences, three- and two-star category,” he informed.
He also said that the group plans on, “increasing RevPAR by 3% compared to 2016”. “Q1 has ended on a positive note for us. In order to do so [increase RevPAR] we have put in place a strong sales, marketing and digital strategy,” Voivenel said.
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