Wyndham Hotels plans expansion in Middle East

The New Jersey-based Wyndham Hotel Group plans to bring its global brand portfolio to the Middle East market in due course, according to the group's top executive.

As the Ramada Downtown Burj Dubai hotel opened for business yesterday, Eric Danziger, President and Chief Executive of the Wyndham Hotel Group, which owns and operates the brand, told Emirates Business that group has an aggressive growth strategy planned for the Middle East and Asia.

Earlier this week, the company announced its 12th Ramada in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, along with signing a deal for a new hotel in Qatar.

Danziger also confirmed the group's Wyndham Hotels and Resorts five-star brand is set to enter the region, with the first one opening in Riyadh by 2011.

"There are nine other mid-scale brands we can concentrate on to hopefully introduce into the region. Days Inn, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, Microtel – these are just some of our labels that could fit in this market," Danziger said. "We will evaluate what each country's requirements are and we will expand into that region with the right fit in mind."

Currently, the company owns 11 hotels brands and 7,040 properties around the world, with Ramada being the most prominent one in the GCC.

Without divulging in the number of new hotels planned for this region, their global development pipeline includes about 1,000 hotels and 110,800 rooms, of which 50 per cent are new construction and 41 per cent are listed as global projects.

"The Middle East is a very healthy market and one of our principal objectives is to spend time here and build the infrastructure. Our growth strategy for the region is bullish, ambitious and very significant for the Wyndham Group," said Danziger.

He said an all-suites hotel such as Hawthorn could be an "ideal fit" for the UAE as such a model does not currently exist here, "but a Super 8 highway lodge concept could never fit here; Saudi Arabia would be more receptive to such a model".

Talking about the impact of the global downturn on the group's regional projects, Danziger revealed the new hotel in Kuwait has been delayed by six months, but all other properties in the region are still going ahead as planned.

The Wyndham Hotel Group posted a decline of 14 per cent in revenues for the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same time last year, with figures slipping to $183 million (Dh672m).

This reflected a decline in global revenues available per room (RevPAR) since the world economies took a beating with last year's financial slowdown.

The hotel group is part of Wyndham Worldwide, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and comprises Wyndham Vacation Ownerships and Wyndham Vacation Rentals and Exchange.

 

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