Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts is bringing its serviced apartment brand Mövenpick Residences to the Middle East after its Bangkok debut last month, chief development officer Andrew Langdon revealed during an interview with Hotelier Middle East at the 2017 Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai.
"We think that the exclusive serviced residence concept has enormous potential and there are markets here in the region which are still under-represented in this category and, therefore, pose tremendous opportunities," Langdon declared, adding that discussions are ongoing for the brand to be realised with projects on the ground in the UAE and in KSA.
The company opened Mövenpick Residences Ekkamai in Bangkok in March 2017, marking the debut of its serviced apartment brand. Langdon mentioned that the group's recent move into serviced residences is in line with its current aggressive growth mode. "For a period of time, we've probably been very careful in terms of our growth; we are now in a very opportunistic growth mode."
With 36 hotels confirmed in the group's global active pipeline (excluding North and South America, India and China), most of which are expected to open by 2020, Mövenpick's growth over the next few years illustrates the aggressiveness of the company's trajectory, Langdon said.
Out of the 36 hotels, Langdon confirmed that the Middle East currently accounts for 12 confirmed in the active pipeline.
Langdon further cited Asia as the fastest-growing source of future pipeline, with the Middle East coming in second as a strong focus for future expansion.
"We are on track to sign seven more hotels in the Middle East," he said.
"The Middle East has always been strong for us," he added. "The luxury market is slowing down a little bit while the mid-scale segment is still showing lots of opportunity. And that's normal. Whenever you have a market that opens up, it is luxury hotels that go in first, then the upper upscale enter then the mid-scale come in. And you see that happening now in the Middle East."
Langdon admitted that while Dubai, Oman, Makkah and Madinah in KSA are still showing opportunities, Egypt is starting to make a comeback and Iraq and Iran are coming up as promising emerging markets, the region overall is beginning to show signs of maturity for the group. "Longer term, the Middle East is starting to slow down in terms of growth," he said.
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