Latest News from Cristal Hotel Abu Dhabi

Business intelligence firm Business Monitor International (BMI) forecasts tourist arrivals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to grow 5 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 12.91 million in 2010. Influx is expected to grow further by an average of 6.5 per cent y-o-y through 2014, driven by the Kingdom’s growing popularity among religious and business travelers.

Cristal Hotels and Resorts, one of the fastest-growing hotel chains in Abu Dhabi, has confirmed plans to expand in the KSA. The expansion plans in the Kingdom that will encompass the following cities, Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar and Mecca to keep pace with various entry activities being witnessed within the country’s rapidly growing hospitality and leisure sector.

The announcement is in line with Cristal’s broader Middle East expansion plan, which has already helped the company emerge as a leader in Abu Dhabi’s hospitality market since its opening in July 2009. Cristal notes that it is being encouraged to enhance its Saudi presence due to the government’s focus on tourism as part of its comprehensive diversification agenda.

“Saudi Arabia is home to two of Islam’s holiest cities and several historic sites and is also either a base or a stopover for numerous multinational corporations. These have combined to turn the Kingdom into a major tourism hub. We intend to apply our formula for successful entry into other key Gulf countries such as Qatar to this very promising market. One area we will focus on is to encourage Saudi nationals, who are consummate travelers, to consider taking their vacations in their own homeland instead,” said Peter Blackburn, CEO, Cristal Hotels and Resorts.

The Saudi Government is keen on developing its domestic tourism market, given that citizens spend millions on their annual travels abroad. The number of Saudi Nationals travelling abroad is expected to rise from around 8.07 million in 2009 to almost 11 million by 2014. Several international hotel chains opened their first hotels in the country last year in recognition of the local travel market’s huge potential.

Cristal Hotels and Resorts recently announced that it achieved one of the highest month-to-date occupancy rates among Abu Dhabi’s 4-star and 5-star hotels in January of 2010, recording an 84 per cent average occupancy for the month. It recently announced its expansion plans into Qatar and is currently eyeing additional strategic locations within the region.

Source: Dar Al Daleel

Posted: 06-04-10

Cristal Hotels and Resorts, one of Abu Dhabi’s fastest growing hotel chains, has announced that it has achieved one of the highest month-to-date occupancy rate among Abu Dhabi's 4-star and 5-star hotels, garnering 84 per cent average occupancy in January 2010. The figure is in line with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority's (ADTA) 10 per cent growth forecast in hotel guests in the emirate this year. Abu Dhabi accommodated around 1.5 million hotel guests in 2009, which according to ADTA will grow to 2.3 million by 2012 when the emirate's hotel capacity reaches over 27,000 rooms.

Cristal Hotels and Resorts' surge to the top of the rankings is a significant achievement as it outperformed more well-established 5-star hotels despite having started operations only in July 2009. Month-to-date occupancy of 5-star properties, most of which have been in the market for more than 10 years, stood at 76 per cent during the same period. Moreover, after its opening, Cristal Hotels and Resorts was able to achieve an average occupancy of 80.35% from August 31 to December 31, 2009.

Peter Blackburn, General Manager, Cristal Hotel Abu Dhabi, said: "2009 was a remarkable year for us despite starting operations only around the third quarter and we are pleased to have carried the momentum through to 2010. As UAE residents and citizens often prefer to stay in local brand hotels, Cristal Hotel has introduced a new brand of hospitality with a distinct local taste, which has been a key factor in our consistently strong market performance."

"The high-level occupancy we have achieved is a strong manifestation of how our guests appreciate our efforts to maintain the exceptional quality of our hotel offerings and services. On account of Cristal Hotel's key focus on business tourism, we are particularly pleased to have seen an increasing number of business guests over the past few months. With government-led tourism initiatives expected to boost room demand in 2010 and beyond, we are confident that Cristal Hotel's growing reputation as a quality-driven hospitality destination will enable us to sustain our strong performance in line with the increasing market demand," added Blackburn.

Located at the heart of Abu Dhabi's business district, the 4-star Cristal Hotel caters to both business guests and tourists and is one of the few completely dry hotels in Abu Dhabi. Cristal Hotel offers a total of 192 rooms and suites, all equipped with high-speed internet connectivity, executive desk and IDD interactive telephone with voice mail. Other premium facilities of Cristal Hotel include an executive lounge, the exclusive Cristal Spa, an in-door swimming pool, sauna, and a beauty salon.

Cristal Hotel is also fully equipped with a full range of business facilities, including a business centre with full secretarial services and touch-screen workstations, five multi-purpose meeting and conference rooms, an executive lounge, and state-of-the-art audio visual equipment. In addition, the meeting rooms and business centre offer an excellent view of the city's skyline.

© 2010 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)

Source: http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/UAE/260732

Posted: 09-02-2010

The soft opening of the Cristal Abu Dhabi – one of city’s best-kept secrets – is just days away, but the site appears far from complete.

Wires protrude from walls in the lobby, construction workers are running in all directions and your feet stick to the tar on the entrance floor.

Surrounded by the chaos of last-minute preparations stands an unworried Peter Blackburn, the general manager of Cristal Hotels and Resorts, a new hotel management company based in Abu Dhabi.

“I have been through so much more and I know that this task is not impossible,” says Mr Blackburn.

Frequent visitors to the Madinat Zayed Shopping Centre have probably passed the site dozens of times but never noticed that a new five-star hotel, which opens on Friday, was in the making.

“I’ve kept this hotel well hidden from the eyes of everyone in the market,” says Mr Blackburn. “I’d say it’s one of Abu Dhabi’s best-kept secrets.”

Working in its favour to stay under the radar was the fact that the 16-storey blue-glass tower was originally designed as a residential property.

“The tower was supposed to be residential units of studios and one bedrooms but when we wanted to form the hotel, extra investments had to be made to transform the property.”

The Cristal Abu Dhabi is now a 192-room five-star hotel that is owned and developed by Seba Properties, an Abu Dhabi company. Both the development and management company are owned by a member of the country’s ruling family, who Mr Blackburn declined to name.

Seba’s initial investment was Dh70 million (US$19m), but that has more than doubled to Dh169m as the project developed. “We have tried to minimise the costs of redesign by applying for a hotel apartment licence, but the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority declined [this] because there are just too many of them here. [It] encouraged us to open a four-star or five-star property,” says Mr Blackburn.

Some may think the hotel’s decision not to advertise could hurt its occupancy level, but Mr Blackburn says the strategy has helped to protect it from any counter moves by competitors.

“Don’t forget that we are a home-grown brand and we are competing on the same level as Rotana and the Jumeirah Group and some people tend to get jealous. We didn’t want to deal with all these issues before opening.

“And on a personal level, I’m not too big on the whole publicity factor before an opening of a hotel because it could easily backfire.”

The hotel’s blue-blood connections and strong demand from business travellers, who make up 80 per cent of the capital’s hotel occupancy, are expected to keep the hotel busy during its soft opening.

The first guest at Cristal will arrive just in time for the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) exhibition, one of a series of conferences during the emirate’s high season for business travel that boosts occupancy rates and revenues.

“We will be charging around Dh1,700 a night during IDEX and after that our rate will be around Dh1,100. Our target market will mainly be visitors from the GCC region,” Mr Blackburn says

While there is a shortage of hotel rooms in the capital, a price cap introduced by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) has been set at Dh1,850. “But we never know; they might change their mind [the ADTA] and decide to bring down the price even more. In the end, its all a business and we need to generate profits to make up for the extra investment that went into this property, which I think will see a break-even point in five years’ time.”

With a background in mechanical engineering, Mr Blackburn, who is from the UK, has spent most of his career as a senior technical services manager at hotels such as the Intercontinental in Cairo, The Peninsula Hong Kong and nearly 10 years at the Abu Dhabi-based Rotana Group.

“I was headhunted by the Rotana Group and after six months of working with them I was promoted to vice president of technical services,” he says. “When I first joined Rotana, they had seven hotels and when I left they had about 28 hotels, so you can say I helped open 23 hotels and this one will be my 24th.”

The hotel has employed 130 people and, by the end of next month, is hoping to increase this to 192. “When we first open on Friday, we are planning to have 10 floors ready. But by mid-March, all 16 floors, an indoor pool and gym will be ready,” he says.

Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon, the chairman of the ADTA, said in November the emirate planned to offer more than 26,000 hotel rooms by the end of 2012. The expansion is part of the authority’s five-year plan to attract 2.7 million guests to visit the capital’s cultural offerings, such as the planned branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many hotels in the luxury segment are experiencing occupancy rates well above the 80s level. However, a recent study by STR Global, a US-based hospitality consultancy, showed Dubai’s registered occupancy levels at luxury hotels last month fell to 68.3 per cent, versus 80.6 per cent in the same period last year.

“I know that this will be a slow summer and in any case, summer has always been slow in Abu Dhabi,” says Mr Blackburn. “But since the emirate mainly depends on business travellers, we will be fine. I’m saying this now with confidence because I have been through a lot worse.”

He was on duty at Intercontinental in Cairo when a gunman shot a number of people in the lobby. “I had helped some of the bleeding before the paramedics arrived... if I could get through that, I know that things will run smoothly here.”

Source: Abu Dhabi