Four Seasons defies downturn and predicts growth

Four Seasons has said it is committed to a strategic development plan that will dramatically expand its portfolio.

And, according to Four Seasons’ president of worldwide hotel operations, Jim FitzGibbon, the current financial meltdown is having little impact on these plans.

“We signed more letters of intent during 2008 than in any other previous year, and that’s in line with our long term goal to grow to 150 hotels in the next several years,” he told ATN.

“We currently have 40 projects under construction or development, and while we expect the pace of development may be affected by the current economic climate, to date we have seen little that would indicate that many of these projects will not proceed according to plan.”

In the Middle East, Four Seasons has yet to plant its flag in Dubai, with the long-awaited Festival City project delayed due to design issues, but expansion in the region has been solid since the first hotel in Cairo opened in 2000 to eight properties currently in Egypt, Qatar, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Slated for this year are properties in Beirut, plus additional properties in the Gulf, with FitzGibbon adding: “We have Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Kuwait on the starting blocks and have identified a site and are negotiating in Oman.”

In terms of braving the economic climate, FitzGibbon said savvy investors and private ownership were two benefits in the world of investment in 2009.

“We have no distractions with the public market in the current situation,” he said, adding that the group’s network of hotel owners had proved equally understanding of the law of diminishing returns in a downturn.

“Owners want to know that there will be no compromise throughout the network — we cannot dilute our business and make short-term decisions that would make us in to a four star operation or change the customer image of what we do,” FitzGibbon said.

“Our focus is on consistency — physical consistency is not essential, but we have to have service consistency as (for us) service is survival.”