Fairmont President: New Hotels For UAE And GCC

The global hotel brand, Fairmont, is to open five new branches across the Middle East in the next three years, with three of the projects based in the UAE.

Hotels in Ajman, Fujairah and the delayed resort in Abu Dhabi will open alongside new projects in Riyadh and Amman.

Fairmont’s sibling brand, Swissôtel, will also open its first UAE branch in 2016.

That’s the word from Jennifer Fox, president of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, who spoke exclusively to Gulf Business on a recent trip to Dubai.

“We’re opening up in Ajman later this year and Fujairah early next year. We’ve also got Riyadh Business Gate opening this year, we’ve got a project in Amman, Jordan opening probably in March next year and we’ve got another project under construction in Abu Dhabi, on the corniche,” said Fox.

“We have a Swissôtel project in Dubai coming up very soon. We’ve very committed to the Middle East and Africa, we believe this is one of our top growth markets.”

The Toronto-based upmarket hotel chain already has three locations in the UAE: Fairmont Bab al Bahr in Abu Dhabi, Fairmont The Palm and its first property outside of North America on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai.

The hotel’s parent company, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, which also owns the Swissôtel and Raffles brands, clearly views the Middle East as one of its key targets for growth.

Fox makes clear that the five new locations are just the start of a period of growth for Fairmont in the region, and that the UAE is at the heart of its expansion plans.

“We would love to be in Beirut. Bahrain, too, has had its problems but we’re still very bullish; we’d very much like to be there.”

“Ras al Khaimah is another great emirate we’d love to have a hotel in. That would be a good compliment to Ajman, Fujairah and Dubai,” said Fox.

“If you look at our three brands and the 35 hotels we have in the pipeline, we still think there’s more opportunity [in the UAE].

Even the Arab Spring, still being felt in Syria and its neighbouring borders, are not enough to deter Fox’s determination to capitalise on the potential gold mine for tourism and hospitality that is the Middle East.

“We would love to be in Beirut. Bahrain, too, has had its problems but we’re still very bullish; we’d very much like to be there. We’re in it for the long term. I’ve been here five times this year already and that shows the importance of the Middle East to us.

“This hotel [the original Fairmont in Dubai] rounds over 80 per cent occupancy over a year. It’s an 80 per cent market so when you’re at that there’s enough demand for more hotels.”

Fairmont has this year been trying to bring one of its new hotels to life, the previously mentioned project on Abu Dhabi’s corniche, with the $272 million contract being awarded to Arabtec earlier this year.

Previous delays however have seen the hotel’s opening date pushed back to 2015, not that the postponement is putting the president off Abu Dhabi as a desirable location.

“I think Abu Dhabi is an interesting market. It’s a little oversupplied right now; the hotels have increased but the demand hasn’t increased that much. But I really think it’s looking to the future and we want to be a part of that.

“Eventually demand will continue to rise and then we’ll start to see less supply. So whilst we might see a little oversupply situation today I think in the future Abu Dhabi will continue to grow.”

“I believe Dubai is one of the world’s cities today. You’ve got New York, London, Paris and I think Dubai is a part of that.”

Moving back to our current location, Dubai, Fox cannot be more positive on the emirate’s potential and the accolades its hospitality market has already achieved, rating the city amongst the very best hotel markets in the world.

“Dubai is absolutely on par [with the world’s leading cities]. I 100 per cent think it’s one of them, and if it’s not there now then it’s nearly there.

“This is a great hotel market, you’ve got all the major brands represented here and most are represented with a great project. I believe Dubai is one of the world’s cities today. You’ve got New York, London, Paris and I think Dubai is a part of that.

“I love the statistic that two thirds of the world’s population can get to Dubai within less than eight hours. It blows me away. I think Dubai is even more a world city than Singapore.

“If you look at the Emirates-Qantas tie up, all of those flights to Europe from Australia that used to go through Singapore and now will go through Dubai, that will have a real impact on Singapore’s performance and that’s going to be to the benefit of Dubai.”

With such ringing endorsements for the emirate, is a third Fairmont hotel out of the question?

“There’s no immediate plans [for another Dubai hotel] but I still think we could easily put another Fairmont hotel in this city and over time I’d definitely want to do that.

“I think you could easily sustain it. This is such a growing city and there’s no reason why we could not have more than the two hotels we have today, this city’s only going to continue to grow.”