Dubai: Swiss-Belhotel International, a hotel management company, looks to bring three- and four-star hotels to the United Arab Emirates, where that segment of the market is expected to grow further in the coming years.
The Hong Kong-based company, which operates two- to five-star hotels, is in discussions to open between two and three properties in Dubai, Gavin Faull, Chairman and President of Swiss-Belhotel, told Gulf News in a phone interview.
“The budget hotel segment [in the UAE] is underserved and has huge potential. The real growth is in the three- and four-star [category] not just here but everywhere,” Faull said.
The government issued in January this year a series of directives to boost the development of three- and four-star hotels, including the allocation of government land for such hotels, no fees on the change of use of land for hotel usage, and the establishment of a committee to review the re-zoning of plots, among others.
The directives come as Dubai aims to diversity its hotel offerings to attract a wider market of visitors. By 2020, the emirate aims to double the number of visitors to 20 million per year, and boost hotel room numbers to 160,000. Also, by the same time, the emirate expects to attract 25 million visitors at Expo 2020, a six-month exhibition which it won the bid to host last November.
Dubai has 88,680 hotel and hotel apartment rooms as of June, according to Issam Kazim, chief executive of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM).
“By the end of 2016, we estimate that we will have between 105,000 and 115,000 rooms in Dubai,” Kazim told Gulf News in an emailed statement.
Swiss-Belhotel expects to open 20 hotels globally this year. Its global revenue is likely to reach $200 million (Dh735 million) in 2014, up 30 per cent over 2013, Faull said.
Meanwhile in Abu Dhabi, the company operates a four-star resort, Swiss-Belresort Ghantoot according to a statement by the company in August.
Located 40 minutes away from Dubai, the 110-room property will expand to have 20 per cent more rooms by the end of 2015.
Faull expects the property’s occupancy to reach around 60 per cent by the end of the year.
Elsewhere in the region, Swiss-Belhotel plans to open seven properties in Saudi Arabia (three in Riyadh and two in both Jeddah and Makkah) by 2016, and its second Doha, Qatar property next year.
In Indonesia, the company is expanding its two-star brand Zest. Under construction are 15 Zest properties, which are expected to open by next year, Faull said, adding that Swiss-Belhotel could bring the budget brand to the UAE.
The hotel chain is also looking at opportunities in Turkey and Georgia, according to Faull.
It operates over 120 hotels, resorts and projects in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Saudi Arabia, China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.
