FUTURE EVOLUTION OF ZIGHY BAY
Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay’s social and environmental commitments and ongoing Omanisation programme are clearly commendable, but how has the resort fared during the economic downturn and what are the business prospects for 2010?
“As far as occupancy goes, we are not looking at beating our budget of course, but we are still confident that the forecasts that we’ve planned will come through. We’re getting very excited because it’s looking much healthier in the last three months,” comments Kilgariff.
“We hovered around 30 to 35% over the summer, but I’m looking to get it up to the 60s, if not 70s, for the last quarter — that’s a tall order but we have hopefully a couple of pieces of business that we would like to secure that would help us get that.”
Generally speaking she says, “it’s still extremely last minute pick up, everyone talks about business being late, but this is now even scarier — it’s really late and it’s surprising how much of a difference we can make over a couple of days”.
Future plans include developing small group business with incentives, as long as they do not interfere with the guest experience of others at the resort, a focus on the festive period and a lunch menu to widen the offer at Sense on the Edge.
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Plus, Kilgariff reveals there are major plans to add to the physical facilities of the resort, with an observatory tower and 44-villa destination spa on the cards.
“They’re both projects because we see this region as being very strong and obviously with investment, all Six Senses properties generally get better with age and evolve and bring in new guest experiences.
“I’ve got a cinema paradiso, which is an open-air cinema, planned but it’s just a matter of logistics and physical timing to make these things happen, but they’re definitely on the books. These types of projects don’t get deferred because they’re generally part of our evolution of a resort developing,” asserts Kilgariff.
“The challenge for me now moving forward at Zighy Bay is that while we’ve had some amazing coverage, we would still like to get a little bit more; it’s kind of a catch 22 situation. I have lots of people talking about Zighy Bay but then I have lots of people saying ‘I don’t know anything about it’,” she continues.
The “big news”, she adds is that a new director of sales and marketing has joined the team — Demeiter Vaubell, who brings with her 20 years’ hospitality experience having worked for a number of global hotel chains including Hyatt, Hilton, Carlson Hotels and Anantara Resorts & Spas.
“It’s just making the Middle East more aware of Zighy Bay and taking it to the next step,” sums up Kilgariff.
And with the pressure now on to live up to the title of ‘World’s Leading New Resort’, and the desire to be considered for future awards as the destination becomes more established, there is no doubt that the team at Zighy Bay will be committed to making this happen.
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