Travel Daily Middle East talks to Mark McCarthy
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How has the hotel performed since its opening?
Al Ghurair Arjaan and Al Ghurair Rayhaan by Rotana in Dubai are witnessing a positive trend within the short frame of commencement. The hotel had to revise their initial targets and budgets of just 35% occupancy and double the expectation as performance was much better than expected. In January 2013, the 620 units ran up occupancy of 70% within just the first month of operation.
What are your objectives for the year ahead?
We have two properties – Al Ghurair Arjaan which is 192 apartments and Al Ghurair Rayhaan Hotel which offers 428 rooms. With both properties, we cater to different segments which include a mix of UAE and GCC nationals. Many of them book online as they prefer staying in Deira. Through our properties, we also target long-stay guests. We also have a good build up of long-stay guests with one-year contracts. This includes nationalities from Japan and Korea too. For the first year, the hotel is focusing across all nationalities. We have the Chinese, Russians, Germans, Turkish. Initially, due to school and public holidays, China and Russia were more prominent early in the year. However now there is a lull in their travel.
Do you see a shift in the focus of business versus leisure?
Right now, we are primarily a leisure property, which would be around a 70:30 ratio. We intend to shift that as we build our corporate account. We will also be focusing on the MICE industry aggressively. We would then like the ratio to be around 60% leisure and 40% business.
What according to you is the USP of the property?
We have a fantastic location and easy access to the metro. We are attached to a shopping mall. There is a buzz in activity around this area as well as easy access to a lot of major tourist sites such as the Gold Souk, Spice Souk and Creek area.
What are the challenges you foresee?
The only challenge is promoting the property in Deira. The location is actually the heart of the city but it still has a perception of being crowded and difficult to access. Our main aim is to change perceptions. This will be achieved once the mall is completed. This will convert the property to a destination by itself.
Which are the emerging markets you plan to tap?
The emerging markets are India, China while Turkey is also building up. We have regular guests from India and China and are also heavily involved with these countries. There is also a lot of potential in the Eastern European markets too. We recently opened new offices in China, India and Russia in the past year so we will tap into them aggressively. Even Iraq is growing. We are also looking at working closely with Iran. In terms of regional markets, Saudi Arabia is the biggest. This is followed by Kuwait. We also consider Abu Dhabi as a regional market.
What is the potential of direct versus traditional bookings for the hotel?
The traditional medium of travel agents is our base but we also have seen a growth in online bookings. There are a lot of bookings coming online from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and the GCC market. We certainly promote several packages through our website.
What are your expectations for the first year?
Our initial expectations were to run 50-55% occupancy but with the kind of growth we have witnessed, we would aim for 65-70% occupancy. We still have the summer to go through so would look at growth positively.
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