Saudi Arabia’s Frontel for Hospitality is making its Arabian Travel Market (ATM) this week because the group looks to take its growing portfolio of properties beyond the Kingdom’s borders, with a strategic development plan for the center East.
Owner-operator of the recently renovated five-star Western Alharithia Hotel in Madina, the corporate is raring to become the “Operator of choice” for hotel owners and developers around the region, in step with Rushdi Sherwani, Director Brand Development, Frontel for Hospitality Inc. With three new group hotels set to open within the Kingdom within the next two years, we’re also accelerating our development agenda for the region, and also are seeing growing interest from established markets which includes the UAE, in addition from Iran and Yemen – either one of that are searching for professional operators to come back in and help grow their hospitality base.”
Frontel for Hospitality Inc. also is near to signing for 3 properties in Pakistan because the branded operator or on a franchise basis, having unfolded negotiations for 2 of most vital hospitality landmarks. The 1st is Karachi’s tallest tower, which currently combines a hotel with a shopping center. The second one is Karachi’s largest hotel when it comes to room inventory and the third property is within the industrial city Sialkot Pakistan.
“Showcasing our portfolio of properties at Arabian Travel Market presents us with a possibility to fulfill existing partners in addition to new potential partners. ATM will even provide a platform for us to create awareness of the Frontel brand and our deal with quality. Moving forward, our strategy is to become a prime hospitality player not just inside the Kingdom but in the course of the region,” said Sherwani.
Frontel for Hospitality Inc. is already actively growing brand presence on its home turf, where it could launch its first Frontel property, the 1,350-key Frontel Village Hotel, Madina, in 2014. Located only one kilometre from the city’s key religious sites, and offering a call of 5-star accommodation and facilities housed in five individual seven-storey towers, this may increasingly be followed in 2015 by the debut of a second Madina property.
The luxurious 650-room Frontel Hotel Al Baiya would be situated within the heart of town, and comprises two 10-storey towers, with a footprint of 6,500 square metres, but affording 65,000 square metres of hotel space.
Expansion into the burgeoning mid-market hotel sector could also be portion of the company’s development vision, and it’ll launch its first three-star property in Jeddah in 2016, with the outlet of the Frontel Business Hotel under the branding of ‘Frontel Eco’.
Infrastructure growth throughout the Kingdom has created a wave of interest and investment into new tourism and business travel facilities, and through the ATM week we’re going to be meeting with Hajj and Umrah travel companies and other tour operators from the UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to sow the seeds for future partnerships to support forecasted demand.
Sherwani noted that some 381,000 new hotels rooms are expected to be added to Saudi Arabia’s existing inventory by 2015, representing a 63% increase on 2010 figures. Inbound visitor arrivals also are forecast to grow from 13 million in 2010 to fifteen.8 million by 2014, with the dominion focusing its efforts on providing the mandatory travel infrastructure to spice up domestic, Hajj and Umrah, and the fledgling inbound tourism sector, because it allocates $500m to airport expansion and $7bn investment into the brand new Jeddah airport.
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