Arab Hotel Management Chains – A Regional Renaissance?
|
|
The upper-class hotel segment in the Arab world is dominated by international management chains: Sheraton, Hyatt, Accor, Hilton etc. The Swiss chain Movenpick and the Canadian chain Four Seasons are regarded by the Arab public as “Arab” chains due to their connection with the Saudi Prince Waleed bin Talal, who is a major shareholder in both of them.
The Kuwaiti “Safir International Hotel Management” has been managing the expanding chain of “Safir Hotels & Resorts” since 1993. This was the first local Arab company that expanded into other Arab countries. At present 14 first-class properties in Kuwait, UAE, Syria, Egypt, and Algeria, and recently in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia are operating under the brand “Safir”. The company holds also a 50 percent share of the Tunisian chain “Abou Nawas Hotels”.
The Abu-Dhabi based “Rotana Hotels Management Corporation” began its business in 1993 with two properties in the UAE. Today Rotana Hotels operates 17 properties in the UAE, in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.
The Dubai based “Jumeirah International” manages two first class properties in London, the Carlton Tower and the Lowndes, beside its six luxurious properties in Dubai including the hotels of Burj Al Arab and Emirate Towers. The “Metropolitan Hotels International” operates from Dubai two properties in Beirut and London. The Syrian “Cham Palaces and Hotels” has expanded into Jordan with two properties.
The major expansion of these hotel chains occurred after 2001 with the booming intra-Arab tourism. The intra-GCC tourism and the regional trend to spend more holidays in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt explain the intensive expansions in these countries. The share of intra-Arab tourism reached up to 40 per cent in the Arab Middle-Eastern region during the 2003/2004 season. The latest management of properties in the UK can be seen as a result of former experience in real estate investments and newly gained know-how in the hotel business oriented toward Arab tourists.
The Arab hotel management companies are very active on the local level: The Tunisian companies in Tunisia, the Egyptians enterprises in Egypt etc. The present trends are geared towards strengthening the existing companies (Tunisia, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) and attempts to establish new companies on local levels (Egypt) as well as an aggressive regional expansion of the major companies with well established brands.
These are findings of an international research network studying tourist development in the Arab world. Contact: Dr. Ala Al-Hamarneh, a.al-hamarneh@geo.uni-mainz.de, www.ceraw.uni-mainz.de
|
Back to main page
|
Legal advice for event managers at ITB Berlin
On 6 March 2013 at the ITB MICE Day, participants can take a look behind the scenes of organising events and gain an overview of the event industry’s many different rules, as well as their fine (15/11/2012)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hotel overnights in Europe set to increase
ITB Berlin and IPK International investigate Europeans’ preferred types of accommodation – Germans favour middle-class hotels, Russians and Britons the luxury segment – the percen (16/08/2012)
|
|
|
|
|
Berlin Gets Its Own Art Week
Artists and art lovers alike are invited to the German capital from September 11 to 16 for the premiere of the “Berlin Art Week”. (19/06/2012)
|
|
|
Relaunch of the GCB German Convention Bureau website
One of the major improvements is a greatly expanded range of available languages. Information will now be presented in Chinese, Italian, French, Spanish and Dutch in addition to the standard German an (22/05/2012)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Berlin calls the tune
Berlin is the German music capital – with the ECHO Awards, the Clubmatcher for partygoers and many musical top events.
(24/03/2012)
|
|
|
|
12th German-Arab Tourism Forum
In order to enhance and deepen cooperation ties between German and Arab companies and institutions of the tourism sector (17/02/2012)
|
|
|
Berlin, a top travel destination in Europe
“The interest in Berlin as a travel destination is unbroken”, said Berlin’s Senator for Economic Affairs Sybille von Obernitz at yesterdays’s press conference in the Waldorf (17/02/2012)
|
|
|
Showing 24 news articles Back
To Top
|
|