EVENTS


10-12 May 2012 Le Meridien Lav, Split Croatia


The seventh annual HI Design EMEA forum took place under sunny skies in the Croatian coastal resort of Split, with delegates enjoying 48 hours of face-to-face meetings, networking, and a stimulating seminar programme.


Words: Matt Turner Photography: Richard Pereira


networking under bright Mediterranean skies. Attendees made their way to the coastal town of Split, founded by the Romans on the shore of the Adriatic Sea in AD305. A tour of the historic city centre, set around the Palace of Roman Emperor Diocletian, was put on for early arrivals. Other guests disembarked from their connecting flights throughout the afternoon in time for a welcome buffet reception at the Lorenzo Bellini-designed Le Meridien Lav Split hotel. The following morning, proceedings began


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in earnest with an overview of the current state of hotel performance and supply pipeline in the EMEA region from Thomas Emanuel, Business Development Director for STR Global. Introduced by perennial host and regular Sleeper contributor Guy Dittrich, Emanuel began by putting European hotel performance into a global context, saying the overall picture was one of “recovery not growth” since the economic crisis of 2008, and that North America was stretching ahead of Europe in the speed of its recovery. The


roatia was the location where delegates gathered for this year’s HI Design EMEA forum, enjoying 48 hours of


state of play in Europe was summarised as “Germany ahead, Spain behind, the rest are recovering.” Key cities such as London and Paris continue to be resilient, with Istanbul the star-performer due to a concerted effort to raise room rates, whilst Zurich, an expensive destination, was struggling. Turning to the Middle East and Africa


region he identified the World Cup 2010 and the Arab spring revolutions of 2011 as the two biggest factors impacting on RevPAR performance. The United Arab Emirates in particular had seen a significant drop in hotel performance since the economic crisis began in 2008, as had most other countries. Morocco on the other hand was leading the way in bouncing back towards the historical peak of 2008, driven by an increase in air routes, and new hotel supply. Saudi Arabia was the only other country outperforming its 2008 figures, with religious tourism and corporate travel cited as the key drivers. At the other end of the spectrum Emanuel said he had heard of resorts in Egypt offering nightly rates as low as $US9 in an attempt to draw tourists back to the country following the Arab Spring. Turning to the supply pipeline, Emanuel


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said supply in Europe had increased 3.9% in the past 4-5 years. This growth was driven largely by the UK, Germany, Russia and Turkey, particularly by the growth of brands such as Park Inn, Hilton Garden Inn in the latter two countries. He also singled out Baku as an interesting area, with huge growth in the number of luxury hotels, and some very high Average Daily Rates, but low occupancy and a lack of mid-tier / budget accommodation. There were signs, meanwhile, that Iraq was beginning to develop hotels again, with eight hotels in the pipeline in the northern city of Erbil, two in Baghdad and ten elsewhere. Attendees then threw themselves into the


first of four intensive meetings sessions split over the two days, with ‘buyers’ from hotel groups, architecture and design practices having the opportunity to meet FF&E suppliers from a broad range of product categories to a strictly choreographed timetable that made maximum use of the time away from their offices. Post-lunch entertainment came in the


form of a head-to-head interview conducted by Guy Dittrich with Patrick Reardon of ReardonSmith Architects. Beginning with the thesis that “appropriate design


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