DUBAI: Ras Al Khaimah could be the next St Tropez, according to Filippo Sona, Colliers International’s head of hotels for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Where will you see the best growth coming up five years?” said Sona, after giving a detailed breakdown of performance statistics and projections to delegates at the Arabian Hotels Investment Conference (AHIC) at Madinat Jumeirah,
“Number one is Ras Al Khaimah. I know they don’t like it when I say it, but for some reason by default many of the themes associated with it are labelled as affordable luxury. Spot on. Amazing destination.
“In my opinion, and in our professional opinion, it’s going to be the new St Tropez of the UAE.”
Dubai would continue to see good growth, he said, describing its strong investment potential as a ‘no brainer’, with Manama also becoming attractive for hospitality investment, he added.
Sona’s praise for the emirate as a destination was no doubt welcomed by Ras Al Khaimah Hospitality Holdings (RAKHH) CEO Yannis Anagnostakis.
Speaking in an interview before Sona’s presentation, he said RAKHH’s four hotels had experienced a 16.4 per cent growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR) through 2015 and into the first quarter of 2016.
The group was currently focusing on developing its existing hotels, but could look at expanding in 2017, he said. RAKHH’s self-operated restaurant unit, however, was looking to expand into Dubai and Abu Dhabi with the Kona Grill franchise announced earlier this month.
“This is our first venture outside the borders of Ras Al Khaimah,” he said.
Ras Al Khaimah’s growth in RevPAR, however, is exceptional in the current Middle East market, though Robin Rossman, managing director of analysts STR was quick to point out that lower RevPARs were partly a result of the growth in the number of rooms.
Between 2010 and 2105, he pointed out that the number of rooms available in the Middle East had increased by 40 per cent, while demand had grown 51 per cent.
Although RevPAR had grown only 2 per cent during that period, the market revenues had grown 42 per cent.
Dubai was likely to see a decline in RevPAR during 2016, Rossman said, but noted that its RevPAR was already significantly higher than the Middle East average of $130 for 2015 (and that was 50 per cent higher than the global average).
In an interview after his presentation, Rossman said that falling oil prices had not resulted in a significant fall in UAE occupancy rates.
“I think everyone was expecting occupancy to decline more,” he said. “In reality it hasn’t. That does talk to a story that says occupancy isn’t declined, demand isn’t declining, but it’s probably not coming from the sources it used to come from. It’s probably coming more from the inter-regional travel and because of that, maybe they can’t achieve the rates they used to achieve, which is why the rates have come down a bit.”
