Face to Face: Omer Kaddouri, Rotana
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Omer Kaddouri, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Rotana Hotels & Resorts
How has the group performed in the last year?
There are positive talks in our region, with Egypt and Tunisia not yet stable but others like Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Doha doing well. Abu Dhabi has lots of new inventory so we are finding it hard to compete, but the feeling is upbeat.
Continuing difficulties with the Arab Spring meant we were affected quite bad in last year’s first quarter but our results were acceptable considering the circumstances. Leisure stays from Europe was very good and light years ahead of budget and revenue. The Arab Spring drove people into Dubai and Abu Dhabi so leisure has seen a big role for us.
Which hotel openings are planned for the year ahead?
Looking ahead, the company is ahead of targets and we need to maintain the bar. These are exciting times for the Rotana brand. We opened seven hotels including properties in Bahrain, Jordan, four in the UAE and two in Doha. There are 14 hotels in the pipeline which are in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, as well as others in Bahrain and Iraq. We hope to have 70 hotels in the portfolio by the end of the year.
Some hotels rely on leisure and others on a mixture with business travel; the latter is the successful way to build our brand.
Does Rotana have plans to develop outside of the Middle East region?
Our first focus is in India and we plan to open there in the next couple of years. It is a mjor growth area for us and outside into Turkey, Africa and Europe. We feel our development platform is ready to be global in the near future, perhaps in the next three to five years.
Rotana has several brands; do you have any plans for their product to change?
Spas will be integrated into some of our hotels and resorts over the coming months. There will be some other new concepts in our hotels I cannot yet disclose.
Our central city brand Centro Hotels is the fastest-growing brand with the fifth to open this summer in Abu Dhabi. We feel that brand can really offer high value at a low price with convenient locations.
We want to focus on theme and meet periods and new ideas for the hotels, as well as get feedback and refocus on Egypt.
How has the hotel market in Egypt changed recently?
At ITB Berlin I attended a cocktail reception with tourism ministers where we discussed the situation in Egypt. It is going in the right direction; there are still lots of hurdles to be crossed but it’s only a matter of time before it picks up. There was a feeling of being cautiously optimistic for tourism and trade to return fully for mid- term to the end of 2013. There is an appetite for investment but businesses are being cautious.
How important is the UK market to Rotana?
UK is a tremendous market into our hotels whether they are leisure, corporate or MICE and so is Germany. Travel agents are a very strong part of our leisure development. Our growth in leisure stays has been tremendous and travel agents have been part of that segment.
We are currently focusing more on the corporate and MICE side of the business with a new promotion. Travelers from Shanghai, Moscow and Mumbai are developing and we need to create more room nights from these emerging economies.