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Middle East
IRAQ
BEST WESTERN, WHICH MADE its debut in Saudi capital Riyadh last year – and opened its first hotels in Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait – continues its aggressive Middle East expansion with the opening this year of the 82-room Best Western Premier Erbil Airport in northern Iraq. A second Erbil property, in the city centre, is already under
construction and is scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year. Glenn de Souza, Best Western’s Asia and Middle East vice- president, expects to have more than 20 properties open in the Middle East by 2015. Erbil, he says, has the potential to become “one of the most prominent trading centres in Iraq”. The fourth-largest city in the country, Erbil is certainly attracting
hoteliers’ attention. A 200-room Marriott and a 75-unit Marriott Executive Apartments property are slated to open next year, while Starwood is planning three new hotels – a 260-room Sheraton, a Four Points by Sheraton (250 rooms) and an Aloft-branded property – in 2015. The 300-room Hilton Erbil Hotel and Spa is scheduled to open in 2016.
KUWAIT KUWAITI PLANS TO DEVELOP a series of ultra-luxury ‘seven-star’ hotels have run into problems – because local hoteliers don’t want them. The Kuwait Municipality’s scheme to encourage private- sector investment in the VIP-only properties is being opposed by the Kuwait Hotel Owners Association (KHOA), which says over-supply has already forced occupancy levels down to just 51 per cent, and with an extra 3,000 rooms coming on stream in the next three years. KHOA will, therefore, probably not welcome this year’s opening of the Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel and Spa, which will add 307 rooms, 80 apartments and 12 chalets into the equation. Intercontinental Hotels Group will compound the despair with the planned 2015 opening of the 220-room Intercontinental Kuwait Downtown and the 120-unit Staybridge Suites Kuwait Farwaniya.
BIG ISSUES
THE CONTINUING DEBATE surrounding airport capacity in south-east England will inevitably rumble on for many years to come and, as part of that seemingly endless process, much will be made of a London gateway’s ability to compete with other European hubs in Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and elsewhere. Which is a pity, really,
OMAN
DESCRIBED AS A “beachfront business hotel”, the 213-room Crowne Plaza Duqm is now due to open towards the end of this year. Some 600km from Muscat, Duqm is being developed as a major new commercial port city in the southeast of Oman. A number of new resorts are planned along Oman’s extensive
coastline – Radisson Blu, Intercontinental, Missoni and Four Seasons flags will be flying within the next few years – but Muscat’s room-count is rising, too. Starwood proposes to bring its W and Element brands to the Omani capital (in 2014 and 2016, with 250 and 100 rooms, respectively) and 2015 will see the opening of the 285- room Golden Tulip Muscat.
because it all rather misses the point. Heathrow and the other European gateways are no longer at the centre of aviation’s known universe – the Gulf States have become the world’s commercial crossroads. While Britons argue
over an extra runway here or a brand new airport there, Emirates and Dubai Airports have got on with the business of opening Dubai International’s Concourse A, the world’s first purpose-built facility for the Airbus A380. And spectacular though the
new concourse is, its real importance lies in the fact that it is just a part of a wider development programme. Concourse A boosts capacity at Dubai International from 60 million to 75 million passengers per year, but Dubai Airports’ overall US$7.8 billion Strategic Plan 2020 will increase airport capacity to 90 million by 2018. Dubai is not alone. Massive
developments continue at Etihad’s Abu Dhabi base, where the new 700,000sq m Midfield Terminal Building will handle up to 30 million passengers per annum (mppa) by 2015. More impressive still,
the Qatari authorities are spending US$15.5 billion on the New Doha International Airport (now named Hamad International) which will handle 50mppa from 2015 onwards. The first phase, which is now due to open in December – a year late – will have a capacity of 28 million.
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