Marking the belief of Starwood’s month-long relocation to Dubai, Frits van Paasschen, President & CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has shared highlights and insights from the company’s immersion within the Middle East.
Throughout the month of March, van Paasschen and members of Starwood’s Senior Leadership Team met with 3,000 associates, conducted nearly 50 owner meetings and visited all 14 Starwood hotels in Dubai, that is the company’s second largest hotel market behind only Ny city. The team also took good thing about Dubai’s strategic location to travel to 19 cities across 12 countries, meeting with government officials and potential development partners in fast-growing markets, including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and India. In the course of the five-week relocation, the team travelled 61,000 kilometres (38,000 miles) – the equivalent of circling the globe one and half times.
Over the process the month, greater than 200 of Starwood’s senior leaders and General Managers travelled to Dubai because the company ran day-to-day operations almost 7,000 miles and an eight-hour time zone difference far from the company’s global headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
During the relocation, Starwood executives also met with greater than 150 corporate and leisure customers who drive business to hotels globally. The center East is an increasingly important outbound travel market, and regional membership in Starwood Preferred Guest, the company’s loyalty program, has increased 140% over the past five years.
“It is tough to overstate the opportunity of our business on this region of the sector. By bringing our executives here and spending time with our partners and native teams, we’re uniquely positioned to exploit this once-in-a-lifetime growth opportunity,” said van Paasschen. “I don’t have any doubt that our time spent here will drive future hotel contracts within the region, accelerate Starwood’s position because the most global high-end hotel company and additional define our culture.”
Last month Starwood announced that it’s going to increase its Middle East and Africa (MEA) portfolio by greater than 60 percent with nearly 50 new hotels set to open over a better five years, adding greater than 14,000 guest rooms to the region and creating thousands of local employment opportunities. With 82 operating hotels and over 20 hotels expected to open by the top of 2015, Starwood is heading in the right direction to arrive a milestone 100 hotels across MEA.
“With 80 percent of Starwood’s pipeline coming from rapidly growing markets, it’s important for us to stay on the forefront of latest travel demands and changing travel patterns,” said Simon Turner, President of world Development, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. “The Middle East is experiencing rapid economic growth, a growing middle class and ever greater global connectivity, and the Dubai relocation may help us expand all of our brands across this significant region.”
The company also announced a comprehensive renovation strategy for its Le Méridien brand, for which Starwood and its ownership groups will invest greater than $200 million within the renovations of 13 hotels and resorts inside the MEA region over the subsequent 3 years.
Following the company’s successful relocation to China in June 2011, this second leadership move reflects Starwood’s innovative management technique to cultivating a more global culture by understanding, appreciating and leveraging different societal and associate perspectives and approaches to business and hospitality.
