INTERVIEW
kawi, Te Carcosa Seri Negara, Te Club Saujana Resort and Te Sau- jana Hotel Kuala Lumpur. Under the partnership, Archipelago will run hotels and spas for Des- tination Resorts where branded partners aren’t involved. On top of this, Archipelago will retain its own identity and operate as its own com- pany outside of Destination Resorts. Longer term, says Metzger, the plan is for Archipelago to grow its newly launched Datai Hotels & Resorts brand in other regions – something that will fit well with the govern- ment’s objective of building quality Malaysian brands.
Looking for investors Although the resort developments are primarily being funded by Khazanah, Desti- nation Resort’s aim is to get private investors involved to operate them. Khazanah’s total investment in Destination Resort’s cur- rent portfolio is almost myr7bn (us$2.3bn, €1.8bn, £1.4bn) – one of the largest in the region for a leisure-based development. According to Metzger, the government doesn’t need to run the developments as the principle shareholder, but isn’t looking for an exit strategy just yet. “When most developers sign a deal, they don’t want to get involved with operations
–they just want to buy, build and leave,” he explains. “We’re not doing that. We’re build- ing communities and we’re committed to it.” Having said that, a large component of the three current projects are residential properties and these will be developed and managed by the UEM Land Group, which also part of Khazanah.
Archipelago
already runs spas, such as at The Carcosa Seri Negara in Kuala Lumpur
The goal is to turn the existing Datai Langkawi into a high-end, eco- tourism destination
© 2011 DESTINATION RESORTS AND HOTELS SDN BHD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
A land of opportunity Metzger isn’t fazed by what needs to be achieved. Although he regularly jokes about
“getting too old for this” and pretends to be unsure about his position – “I forget what my role is here!” – you get the impression this is his way of taking the shine off himself and
giving the limelight to others. He’s already proven himself a master of leisure develop- ment with the runaway success of Sentosa island in Singapore, which together with his team at Sentosa Leisure Group, he trans- formed from a tired looking island resort into Resorts World Sentosa – one of south- east Asia’s top tourist destinations. But his role at Destination Resorts is
slightly different. It comes with the added challenge of bringing a new product to a market that isn’t well-versed in high-end lei- sure offerings. On top of that, in creating a success of Sentosa, he’s made his current job harder as he now has to compete with the well-visited tourist offering of Singapore as well as with the nearby and popular tourism destinations of Tailand and Bali. While Malaysia is well known for its shop-
ping and beaches, tourism is mainly focused around the city and city-based hotels, plus a few island resorts known mainly to back- packers who enjoy diving. “People’s perception of Malaysia is that it’s
A Teluk Datai development will be more peaceful and is surrounded by the rainforest 34 Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital
underdeveloped and underutilised, but that is the great opportunity,” explains Metzger. “We have all this land, friendly people and
SPA BUSINESS 2 2012 ©Cybertrek 2012
© 2011 DESTINATION RESORTS AND HOTELS SDN BHD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
© 2011 DESTINATION RESORTS AND HOTELS SDN BHD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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