Face to Face: Tony Cousens, Senior Vice President - Asia Pacific; Jumeirah Group
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1. Like Dubai’s growth, Jumeirah’s rise has been fairly unprecedented in scale and grandeur. What have been the key elements to the success of Jumeirah’s rise?
Our success emanates from our Hallmarks, Guiding Principles and our Vision to ‘Stay Different’. Through our colleagues and strategic partnerships with our sister companies within Dubai Holdings, we have successfully demonstrated our commitment to luxury and innovation – as represented by our flagship property the Burj Al Arab.
Whilst we were only launched in 1997, we have paid close attention to detail in all our business dealings and developments; it has been an aggressive but well planned growth strategy through Jumeirah Stay Different.
2. Do you believe that Dubai and Jumeirah’s high-end, luxury status will be positive or negative factor in your ability to cope with the current economic climate?
I am not an economist and I can only speak on behalf of Jumeirah. The luxury end of the business remains strong, our bookings so far are at the same level as last year’s and we believe the calibre of guests patronising our hotels are mostly resilient to recession.
The potential for the luxury market also remains high in the regions we are expanding into, for example China and the Asia Pacific. With many new properties currently under development, we expect resurgence in the market by the time of completion between 2010 and 2012. Overall, we look forward to another strong year in 2009.
3. Do you believe Dubai’s current hotel expansion is sustainable in the long-term, or is the city heading towards over-supply?
Jumeirah hotels and resorts in Dubai are operating at close to full capacity throughout the year; our current occupancy rates are averaging as high as 90%.
Dubai has become one of the most popular and sought-after tourism destinations in the world. There is a definite need for more hotel rooms to accommodate the 15 million visitors expected in the Emirate by 2015, compared with 6.44 million in 2006.
Our STAY DIFFERENT
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