Dubai's Jumeirah plans 20 Asia-Pacific hotels
Dubai hotelier Jumeirah Group is pressing ahead with plans to add at least 20 hotels in Asia-Pacific in the next four years, despite a looming tourism slump induced by the global financial crisis.
Executive chairman Gerald Lawless yesterday said China and India would be the growth drivers, accounting for the bulk of the group's 60-hotel portfolio by 2012.
Jumeirah, which counts Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts as rivals, aimed to open hotels in major gateway cities in the region such as Beijing, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau and Bangkok, Mr Lawless said.
'The development plan is still achievable although the environment is challenging,' he said. 'We don't know how deep the financial crisis will go, but we are cautiously optimistic.'
He added that five new projects were sealed in the past two weeks, taking the total number of the group's hotels in operation and under construction to 19.
Mr Lawless' optimism marks a stark contrast to the gloomy predictions of some hospitality consultants, who forecast widespread delays in new inventory and lower revenue per available room (revpar), a measure of yield, for hotels as travellers tighten their budgets.
Deloitte forecast up to 90,000 new rooms, or 18 per cent of the total planned by the world's five largest hotel chains, would be delayed as a result of a lack of funding for construction. It also forecast Asia-Pacific revpar would tumble to single-digit growth this year from about an 18 per cent increase last year.
Jumeirah, which manages 11 hotels and resorts mainly in the Middle East, was on track to unwrap a 309-room hotel in Xintiandi, Shanghai - its first project on the mainland - early next year, Mr Lawless said.
The next mainland project will be in Guangzhou and is scheduled to open in 2011.
A relatively late entrant to Asia's tourism and hospitality sector, the group expected a revival in the tourism market by the time the new projects were completed, he said.
Jumeirah vice-president of development in Asia-Pacific Francis Killory said the mainland market had been hurt by visa restrictions in the past four months, but believed they would soon be lifted. The restrictions, which were part of the mainland's security policy before the Olympic Games in August, are still in effect.
