The creation of new demand drivers will be critical in ensuring the regions hospitality sector continues to grow despite the challenges of mounting competition and continued low oil prices. How the GCC economies will drive the leisure and business travel sectors, and how hotels will deal with the pressure to fine-tune their offerings to deliver long-term growth, will be among the major talking points at the Gulf and Indian Ocean Hotel Investors Summit (GIOHIS) 2018.
The design and construction community has a key role to play in providing creative ideas and solutions for meeting the future needs of the industry.
Simon Allison, HOFTELs chairman, says: All parts of the hospitality market need to embrace change in order to deliver long-term growth. There are fantastic opportunities ahead, but its critical we find new offerings and that all stakeholders work together. The design and construction industry is critical in helping to deliver this.
The Middle East represents a significant opportunity for the hospitality sector due to the ongoing drive for economic diversification away from oil and gas, but with the worlds highest pipeline of new hotels set to come onstream, the need to differentiate and create new offerings is more important than ever.
Haitham Mattar, CEO of the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Destination Authority, says: The fundamentals for industry growth in the region are good but it is vital that we challenge ourselves as an industry to respond to the needs and expectations of our customers in new ways. In RAK, we are creating not only new beach resorts but also adventure tourism experiences including the worlds longest zip line.
The region is surging ahead with innovative resort projects, such as the proposed new Red Sea islands planned for the Saudi coast, while new industrial sectors are also being stimulated such as new logistics and manufacturing hubs in Bahrain. Moreover, having focused largely on luxury up to now, many of the regions leading developers like WASL in Dubai are now moving into more midscale offerings.
Jerad Bachar from the Bahrain Economic Development Board notes: Bahrain, along with all countries in the GCC, continues to make great strides in economic diversification. Bahrains economy depends on strong contribution from financial services, manufacturing, and tourism. We are currently witnessing approximately $32bn worth of development investment in the Kingdom, with $10bn directly connected to tourism including the airport
modernization program and several resorts and retail destinations.
For the third year running, GIOHIS, held January 29-30, 2018, will bring many of the regions top hotel owners, developers and operators together at the Yas Viceroy in Abu Dhabi.