OPERATING PERSPECTIVE

Finally, what was the opinion of the major hotel operators in the lead up to AHIC? Two members of the Leaders’ Panel — Wyndham Hotel Group president and CEO Eric Danziger and The Rezidor Hotel Group president and CEO Kurt Ritter — both said they were committed to growing their businesses.

Danziger said that because of signs of over supply in the Middle East, Wyndham was being strategic in identifying the appropriate assets for its brands.

“Our recent agreements for the Wyndham Riyadh and Ramada Encore Doha — both firsts for our company — are a testament to this,” said Danziger.

He said that further opportunities in the Middle East would mainly come from a likely diversification “into a fewer number of key regional cities and a larger number of leisure resort destinations”.

“In EMEA, we’re focused on emerging markets, primarily in those areas where there is an undersupply such as in some parts of the Middle East as well as in Poland, Ukraine and Romania,” added Danziger.
“Also, we’re looking at more mature markets including Spain, France, the UK and Germany, where there is a strong supply of hotels, a large part of which are struggling independents that need the benefits of a flag, especially now”.

Growth will be supported by regional leaders appointed last year for the first time: Michael Poynter to head the EMEA region and Ken Greene to head up the APAC region.

“On the development side, we appointed Jim Alderman as executive vice president of development. He has a strong team of developers around the globe that aggressively seek out opportunities for all of our brands,” said Danziger.

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Rezidor has an ambitious business development plan as it builds on the 36 new openings achieved in 2009.

“We especially target two young and emerging markets: Russia/CIS and Africa where we see a huge potential for profitable and fee-based growth supporting our asset-light business model,” said Ritter.

“In Africa, we are called “the mover and shaker” of the continent; we have been present in the region since 1999 and today have 35 hotels with 7800 rooms in operation and under development. Our strategy targets capital and key cities with no or quite dated internationally branded hotels. Properties under development include Radisson Blu and Park Inn hotels in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Maputo, Mozambique; Kigali, Rwanda; Lagos, Nigeria; and Nairobi in Kenya.”

Of recovery of the hotel investment market in the Middle East, Ritter warned: “We are not out of the woods yet — the crisis is not over, and we should not celebrate too early. It is still crucial to carefully think through all decisions.

“I think that the Middle East will recover relatively fast from the financial crisis, and we will have a more relaxed ambiance at AHIC 2010 than at AHIC 2009. I also think that the region will be more and more open towards mid-market brands (for example Park Inn) and will be searching for new and profitable business models.”

It is these models, along with all of the issues discussed by the experts, that will be debated live at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference. For more details: www.arabianconference.com