TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
Shaji Abu Salih, Corporate Director, Business Development Shaza Hotels and Mysk Hotels, shares the group’s expansion plans with TRAVTALK. Shaza will launch a hotel at the Palm in Dubai by July and the glamping on wheels concept at Al Hamriyah in Sharjah by Q4.
Shehara Rizly
Shaza is expecting to open two new hotels this year. “The first hotel will be Mysk the Palm Jumeirah and then we are also opening Mysk Nomad, our first glamping on wheels concept and this will be in Al Hamriyah beach of Sharjah,” shared Shaji Abu Salih, Corporate Director, Business Development Shaza Hotels and Mysk Hotels.
“So, we have two projects this year and four openings next year, which includes Salalah and Khorfakkan, which is a beautiful Mysk retreat on the mountains and the Mutra souk, Oman and our first hotel in Jeddah, Mysk Jeddah. Mysk Palm Jumeirah to open by July 1, end of Q2 or early Q3, and Al Hamriyah Sharjah in Q4,” he added.
Speaking about the performance last year and expectations for this year, Abu Salih said, “2022 was a bridge year post-pandemic. It was a year where we rallied up to the pre-pandemic levels, and 2023 is off to a great start across all our hotels in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman and Doha, where we just opened for the World Cup (FIFA. UAE market is doing really well as it was one of the first to open up, thanks to its leaders. We hope this to continue in 2023.”
He further revealed the hotel group’s future plans. “We have 1,100 rooms currently across nine hotels, of which four are retreats that we opened in Sharjah, and retreats are more boutique in style, with 20 to 40 rooms per retreat. By 2024, we hope to double the portfolio to 2,200 rooms across Shaza and Mysk brands,” he said.
Focusing on expansion plans for the region, Abu Salih said, “Saudi Arabia is the next biggest destination the world is going to witness, and we are also trying to get our market share from there and our expansion plans in Saudi Arabia are heavily focused on the new developing areas, as well as the traditional areas such as Jeddah, Dammam, and Riyadh. We also want to expand our retreat business, which is highly successful in the UAE. We want to expand the retreat business across Saudi Arabia, which is almost in line with the vision of 2030. Right now, we are in Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and we have expansion plans in Kuwait and there is dialogue happening in Bahrain.”
He added, “We are also looking at outside this region, we are opening our first Mysk and Shaza hotels in Orlando, right in front of Disneyland, we will be the first Arabian hospitality brand entering into the United States of America. We are also having expansion plans across the Levant, Turkey, Egypt and Far East. We are expecting to open by 2026. Work is going on, as we are partnering with one of the developers from Canada, it will be a multi-property complex. So, by 2025-2026, we should be there with about 500 rooms.”
Sustainability plays a key role in tourism and hospitality today. Abu Salih said, “Sustainability is a lifestyle. It’s not just about reducing the carbon footprint, but also not reducing the guest experience. We have a perfect fit brand for sustainable tourism, which is called Mysk retreats. If you go to Sharjah, all the retreats under Sharjah Collection are perfect example of how an eco-sustainable retreats or hotels must operate, and based on that same philosophy, we will develop into Saudi market, and this is a perfect fit for the new emerging markets of Saudi Arabia.”
Highlighting the importance of travel trade, Abu Salih said, “Travel trade is not just partners but our extended sales team. We have a beautiful program called Shaza Select, which is incentivising the travel agents and corporate bookers for the support they provide to all of our hotels. Travel trade, key corporate bookers, airlines and government are all part of our Sharjah Select programme and we incentivise them according to their performance and their relationship and loyalty, it is a completely B2B loyalty programme.”
On the participation in international exhibitions, he said, “We are represented in all the major travel trade exhibitions such as ITB, ATM, WTM and ILTM. We also do roadshows quarterly in all our key feeder markets to meet travel agents, take our general managers and our sales team and engage with them, build relationship and nurture our future.”
