Face-to-Face: Jonathan Wigley
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Travel Daily chats with Jonathan Wigley, CEO of the Absolute Hotel Services Group, about his group’s rapid expansion and future plans for the development…
Q) AHS currently has several brands – how do you differentiate them?
Yes, we have three brands targeting different consumer groups. U Hotels & Resorts is positioned at an upper deluxe level with intimate and personality driven properties. The brand targets sophisticated and inquisitive consumers who desire freedom to explore the destination.
Eastin Hotels & Residences is also a brand positioned at a deluxe level with larger property sizes in prime locations. The brands target consumers who look for value for money, flexibility and consistency.
Eastin Easy is positioned at an upper economy level in volume destinations. The brand targets consumers who look for their needs to be satisfied based on value, comfort and consistency.
Q) You have seen strong recent portfolio growth in places like Thailand, India and Bali. Which parts of Asia do you believe hold the most potential for AHS?
Now with 62 properties in our portfolio we have seen great growth in Thailand, Indonesia, India and Vietnam. We still have many opportunities to grow in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. We are also looking to expand our geographic footprint in 2014 with planned portfolio growth in Africa and Eastern Europe where we are planning to open offices.
It has always been our strategy to have a presence on the ground in the places we intended to business in and this has served us well in India and Indochina.
Q) What are your main guest source markets, and which areas are seeing the strongest growth?
For our Southeast Asian properties the growth is definitely led by inter regionally traffic thus Asia Pacific and we also enjoy healthy domestic demand. Our India locations enjoy very strong domestic demand too. We expect these trends to continue with also continued support from traditional long haul markets in Europe and North America.
Q) Do you believe that being an Asia-based company will give you an advantage over international chains in future, as Asia comes to global prominence?
For sure. Asia is where both the demand and supply growth is happening and, let’s face it, hospitality is the best in Asia. As Asia becomes more and more confident Asians will look to Asian brands to support and be loyal to. The long-haul markets are already great supporters of Asian brands because that’s why they come to Asia for an Asian experience.
I am confident we will also continue to see Asian brands growing in Europe and North America with the reputation for hospitality thus more Asian brands will become global players.
Q) How much of an impact do you believe the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 will have on the hotel and travel landscape in the region?
In terms of demand, the trend of inter-regional travel is already established and will continue to grow, we will also see more interregional investment which will have impacts on supply. I believe the major impact will be the movement of labour as in certain countries we are experiencing major shortages of skilled hospitality professionals but in some countries they are in abundance thus we will see a movement for sure.
Q) What further developments can we expect to see from AHS in the coming months?
By year end we expect to move our portfolio to 70 properties or about 7,500 keys as we have advanced negotiations for more properties in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and India. We also have a slew of openings with an additional 14 properties coming on line in the next six months in Thailand, Vietnam and India.
In the first quarter of 2014 we will be launching Absolute Capital which will allow us to invest in more properties with a focus in Asia on existing assets. In addition and as mentioned earlier we look to expand our geographic footprint into Africa and Eastern Europe.
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