Accor to have all of its core brands in the Gulf in 2 years’ time

Dubai: French hotel chain Accor expects to have all of its core brands in the Gulf region within two years, the company’s top executive told reporters at a press conference in Dubai on Wednesday.

According to Christophe Landais, managing director for the Middle East at Accor, a property under MGallery, the only core brand that’s not in the Gulf, is expected to open in Doha in 2015. He added that “it will be difficult” to have the first MGallery property in Dubai.

However, Dubai is likely to see a hotel under the Sofitel So brand. He did not state when it could open, except to say that Accor is “in discussions” with investors about an opening.

Sofitel has 3,600 hotels in 92 countries around the world. It has more than 10 brands in the luxury and upscale, midscale and economy hotel segments, including Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure, The Sebel, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, Adagio, Adagio Access, Ibis, Ibis Styles, Ibis budget, HotelF1, and Thalassa Sea and Spa. Its core brands include Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Ibis, Adagio and Mercure.

Asked when Accor will have all of its brands in the Gulf, Landais told Gulf News: “The introduction of the budget brand of Accor, Ibis budget, into the Gulf region will depend on the regional market segmentation evolution calling for budget products. Most probably the UAE and Dubai market evolution will require sooner than later for such budget product to be developed.” He added that there are no properties under Ibis budget and Ibis Styles in the Gulf pipeline.

In 2014, Accor expects to open 14 hotels in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, including Sofitel Dubai Downtown, Sofitel Jeddah Corniche (both due to open in May-June)and Adagio Dubai Al Barsha, among others.

The company has 30 properties in the pipeline, of which 40 per cent will be in Saudi Arabia and 30 per cent in the UAE, according to Landais. He pointed out that Accor is focusing on the UAE , Saudi Arabia and Qatar markets.

Accor aims to have 100 hotels with 25,000 rooms in the Gulf by 2016. Construction of its second Ibis property in the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) area is expected to start in March this year and it is due to open during the same month in 2016, according to Landais.

Meanwhile, the company is in talks about opening hotels in Dubai World Central (DWC), the site that will have the infrastructure for World Expo 2020, Landais said.

It announced the launch of its localised Arabic website, which features top promotions and destinations, among others.

Accor’s revenue grew by “over 20 per cent” in 2013 over 2012, according to Landais.