MARKET UPDATEHOTELIER MIDDLE EAST | August 2019 | Volume 18 Issue 08 21
opment Board director Ali Murtaza
during an exclusive interview with Ho-
telier Middle East at the Arabian Hotel
Investment Conference (AHIC) in Ras
Al Khaimah, earlier this year.
Murtaza said the reason behind the
need for more midscale hotels in the
Bahrain was due to GCC consumers
having less “leisure spends caused by
recent, region-wide changes to oil prices
and the removal of subsidies which has
resulted in an increase in utility bills.”
Despite the reduction in spending
power, Murtaza said that consumers,
who are mainly Saudis, are still visit-
ing Bahrain but are now seeking less
expensive accommodation.FUTURE OUTLOOK
While the immediate future remains
bright for Bahrain’s hospitality sector,
questions will be raised whether the
market can sustain its performance.
TRI Consulting ’s Yani Eftimov pre-
dicted Bahrain’s tourism market to re-
main positive as the country focuses on
attracting new source markets across
Europe and Asia, as well as plans for a
potential second airport by 2034.
“There are numerous tourism and
mixed-use projects under development
which are projected to give further impe-
tus to the development of Bahrain’s tour-
ism market,” added Eftimov.
“Total hotel establishment room in-
ventory is forecast to grow 31% by 2023,
subject to materialisation rates, with an
estimated 89.5% of future supply falling
into the upscale-to-luxury bracket.”
Bahrain Sofitel’s Kiraczi echoed Efit-
mov’s outlook on the market and pre-
dicted that hotel supply will only con-
tinue to grow.
“In line with growing supply and in-
creasing visibility and awareness, sub-
stantial increase in the amount of oper-
ators promoting Bahrain as an ultimate
destination is expected,” said Kiraczi.
“With the growing hotel supply, it
may only impact the industry positive-
ly. There would be collective efforts
from everyone involved from within
the industry to boost the international
tourist arrivals to Bahrain.”
With so much tourism investment
and a host of hotel pipelines, hoteliers
are anticipating a promising prospect
for Bahrain’s future.mid-scale and eco developments.”
He added that Bahrain has a variation
of three and four star hotels that are lo-
cally, as well as internally branded, but
revealed there was a gap in the market
for beach front leisure developments in
the mid-scale segment.
“The country is currently developing
further infrastructure for more public
as well as private recreational facili-
ties which can be utilised by hotels,”
Kiraczi added.
“There seems to be a huge focus to
generate growth in the international
leisure segment. Various charter opera-
tors from Germany, as well as Slovakia
and Czech Republic, are showing inter-
est to operate in Bahrain.”
The observation from Kiraczi was
echoed by Bahrain’s Economic Devel-Bahrain market has made a tremendous
come back with an upswing in RevPAR
which comes as a relief,” said Voivenel.
WHO ARE THE NEW OPERATORS?
Bahrain is expected to see a surge of
new openings during 2019 with more
than 3,600 branded keys set to be in-
troduced by 2023. The operators in-
clude Hilton Worldwide, The Address
Hotels & Resorts and Shangri-La.
With a number of hotel openings
announced in the Kingdom, TRI Con-
sulting ’s Yani Eftimov predicted that
Bahrain would target the premium
hotel segment and the luxury hotel
room supply would more than double
by 2023.
Among the latest five-star properties
set to open in Bahrain is the Harbour
Row Hotel, which is part of the H Hos-
pitality Collection group.
The agreement was made between
H Hospitality Collection and GFH Fi-
nancial Group, which will mark the ho-
tel management group’s first entry into
the country.
H Hospitality Collection CEO Clau-
dio Capaccioli said operating the prop-
erty in Bahrain was a “significant step”
in its GCC expansion strategy.
Commenting on the hotel con-
struction pipeline, Sofitel Bahrain’s
director of sales and marketing Emre
Kiraczi said: “Since 2017, Bahrain
has had a development pipeline of
over 180 which includes some luxury
brands such as Fairmont as well as
Four Seasons Hotel BahrainMechant House Bahrain