Four Thai hotel firms enter Middle East market

With the tourism market in Thailand slowing, four Thai hotel companies are looking to expand their Middle East footprint, keen to access the high-end hospitality market there. The firms are Centara Hotels & Resorts, Dusit International, Minor Hotel Group and Onyx Hospitality Group.

Bangkok-based Onyx Hospitality Group, known for its flagship Amari brand, is already present in Doha. According to Peter Henley, president and CEO of Onyx Hospitality Group, while Onyx is not building or acquiring hotel properties, it plans to intensify its marketing in the Middle East. As of 2015, the Middle East has become Onyx’s third-largest source market for Thailand-bound travelers.

Centara Hotels & Resorts, a major Thai hotel operator, has signed a management contract with Al Bandary Hotel Management to establish the Centara Grand West Bay Hotel Doha in Doha’s newly-developed West Bay district. Opening in 1Q2016, this is the second Centara Group project to open after the Centara Muscat Hotel in Oman.

Apart from 46 hotels in Thailand and the two new Middle Eastern properties, Centara’s portfolio includes 21 resorts across the Maldives, Vietnam, Shanghai, Bali, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Ethiopia and Laos. This accounts for a total of 67 properties it either owns or manages. Industry experts predict that Centara will launch future hotels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi

“The Middle East region is a strategic one for us, and we deeply appreciate the trust that international investors are placing in our unique Thai style of hotel management,” said Centara Hotels & Resorts CEO Thirayuth Chirathivat.

Dusit International, known for the iconic Dusit Thani hotels and two Dusit Residences in Dubai and Abu Dhabi will add an additional six properties to its Middle East portfolio, with three managed by the Dusit group itself. These will be the Doha and Jeddah properties under the dusitD2 brand. Another Jeddah property will operate under the Dusit Thani brand.

Other hotel properties will open in the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina and will be managed in partnership with Saudi hospitality firm Dyar Hotels and Resorts. These properties will target Muslim pilgrims engaged in the annual Hajj.

According to Dusit International CEO Chanin Donavanik, the group will establish an additional office in Saudi Arabia, alongside its existing sales office in Dubai, to launch regional marketing for the new properties. Donavanik added that more dusitD2 hotels are planned in the UAE, where Dusit is partnering with investment company Al Masar Holding: The dusitD2 Tecom Dubai and the dusitD2 Residence Al Manzel Abu Dhabi are both opening in 2016.

Minor Hotel Group, which runs luxury Thai hotel brand Anantara, is renowned for the Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort in Abu Dhabi. Minor will enter Oman with an Anantara mountain resort in Jabal Akhdar and an additional hotel property in Salalah in 2016.

The expansion comes after the opening of Banana Island Resort Doha earlier this year, which brought its property portfolio in the Middle East to eight assets. Minor Hotel Group also entered a partnership with Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company in April 2015 to build two hotels in North Africa – one in Tangier in Morocco and another in the southwestern Tunisian oasis city of Tozeur.

By Shiwen Yap – Source: dealstreetasia.com