Dubai-based Emaar Hospitality Group has defined its credentials in the hotel industry, managing a diverse portfolio of luxury, upscale and contemporary mid-scale hospitality assets and brands. The Group recently held roadshows in New Delhi and Mumbai along with their decade-long trusted and dynamic partner in India, the Nijhawan Group. TTJ met up with Mark Kirby, Head of Emaar Hospitality Group, who shared his vision for the Group, and their expansion plans at the New Delhi roadshow.
– Gurjit Singh Ahuja
Mark Kirby is not new to Emaar Hospitality Group, having been associated with the Group since 2014 in his earlier role as the General Manager of Armani Dubai. He took over the reins of his current role as Emaar’s Head of Hospitality in January 2021.
Having visited India many times, Mark is no stranger to India and was delighted to be back in Delhi. He said, “India remains very close to my heart as I love the energy that this country has to offer. I’ve travelled here multiple times, and I’ve always enjoyed coming back. It’s a monumental occasion for us because we have done roadshows here in India for many years, having worked very closely with the Nijhawan Group for over a decade now.”
Emaar Hospitality Group has positioned itself as a perfect choice for business, leisure, and group travellers with distinctive brands such as Address Hotels + Resorts, Vida Hotels and Resorts, and Rove Hotels. Elaborating on the Group’s brand portfolios, Kirby explains, “Emaar Hospitality Group is a home-grown business; it’s part of the Emaar PJSC conglomerate. So, it’s an entity within itself. The Address Hotels + Resorts, the luxury five-star category, is a very important brand for us. Again, as a home-grown brand, it signifies its tagline of “Where Life Happens” through all its experiences and offering guests a home away from home experience. It’s about really being able to welcome guests, and offer them the hospitality of the UAE.”
The Vida Hotels and Resorts by Emaar Hospitality Group are upscale lifestyle hotels and residences which present a refreshing and invigorating atmosphere where style meets convenience and creativity. “Vida Hotels and Resorts fit across the four and five-star markets. We recently opened up our first Vida Beach Resort in Umm-Al-Quwain, which is a five-star resort on the foreshore of the Arabian Gulf with beach access,” shares Kirby.
Kirby also updates on their other unique hotels in Dubai, “The Manzil Downtown, a boutique hotel with an arabesque vibe, is very much a lifestyle hotel. Palace Downtown, a resort that many of our guests from the region are familiar with, is almost like a city retreat resort, in the heart of Downtown Dubai. Most of our hotels are in prime locations of the city and offer their unique experiences. Finally, we manage two Armani Hotels located in Dubai and Milan as a joint venture between Emaar Properties and Giorgio Armani. Over the years, we’ve had a superb working relationship with Giorgio Armani.”
The Emaar Hospitality Group is looking outside Dubai and UAE for its next openings on the expansion front. With well-thought plans aimed at strategic growth, expansion outside the UAE has resulted in the opening of Address Istanbul in the heart of the iconic city. This hotel very much represents the UAE’s home-grown culture outside of the UAE. The end of 2021 saw the opening of Vida Beach Resort Marassi Al Bahrain, which is the first Vida outside of the UAE, with grandiose expansion plans for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia already underway.
The roadshows in New Delhi and Mumbai were an endeavor to reconnect face to face with trade partners and showcase to them the current travel situation in Dubai, and welcome Indians back to Dubai. India has been a priority market for Emaar Hospitality Group, accounting for almost eight per cent of the total business mix across its brands. “All through the pandemic, we have been working very closely with partners just to stay connected. Checking in on each other’s well-being was very important to us to keep connected. We did a lot of online sessions with each other, just to keep everybody engaged in the industry. Staying connected and building strong relationships in the industry has always been our focus and we worked very hard and collaboratively over the last two years to ensure that is achieved,” says Kirby.
Presently, international guests are returning to Dubai in large numbers. Call it revenge tourism or just the pure lure of Dubai, the international guest ratio at Emaar properties is already up to sixty-five per cent, which is perhaps almost the same as pre-COVID levels.
As Emaar Hospitality Group is growing very strategically and organically, these aspects enable it to put its brands in destinations with key partners and key investors. They are careful with whom they partner and have to protect the brand values. The love for these hospitality brands nurtured in the UAE has now moved slightly further afield within the GCC, and talks are already underway with partners in destinations beyond. So, it’s a very exciting phase as Emaar Hospitality Group, primarily a very UAE-centric stellar brand, now spreads out its wings to new horizons.
