TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
Haitham Mattar, Managing Director, IMEA IHG Hotels and Resorts, share their growth plans and strategies for the next 10 years in an interview with TRAVTALK. Always proactive in his approach, Mattar also shares details on their new rewards and loyalty programme, which will provide more benefits for their clientele.
Shehara Rizly
what is your growth strategy for the region in 2022?
With a number of significant socio-economic changes across key markets in the Middle East, the region is transforming, and the economy is diversifying. This presents great opportunities for the tourism and hospitality sector, and we are committed to accelerating growth and expanding our presence in the region. The majority of our growth in the Middle East will continue to be driven predominantly by the UAE and KSA. We also see opportunities more broadly across the region, particularly in Oman and Egypt.
We have exciting times ahead of us whether that is in facilitating the establishment of Saudi Arabia as one the world’s top tourism destinations or expanding our footprint across the rest of the Middle East. We are also committed to supporting development of various new destinations across the region to further strengthen the region’s appeal to both domestic and global travellers.
As we develop and grow, it’s important to us and our stakeholders that we operate in the right way for our people, communities and planet, and we have a series of ambitious commitments to help us achieve this through our 10-year action plan called the Journey to Tomorrow.
Will you be bringing in new brands to the UAE and KSA in particular?
While we will continue expand the footprint of our established brands in the region to cater to an increasing number of travellers, we see an opportunity to bring the new brands to the market, especially in growing tourism destinations such as UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Given the demand for luxury experiences, we especially see a huge potential to introduce our global luxury brands such as Regent, Kimpton, and the recently launched Vignette Collection.
In your opinion, what will you say the key changes/highlights were in 2021 for IHG MEA?
2021 saw the emergence of the tourism and hospitality sector from the shadow of the pandemic. As vaccines were rolled out globally and border restrictions were lifted, customer confidence to travel saw a resurgence to even pre-pandemic levels.
Over the past year, we continued to elevate and promote our core competencies, providing visitors a variety in offerings, price and experience. We also signed more hotels to further strengthen our offering, including voco Dubai Palm Jumeirah, voco Bonnington Dubai which is now open to guests, InterContinental Resort Red Sea, InterContinental Riyadh King Fahed Road, Holiday Inn Najran in Saudi Arabia, four Hotel Indigo properties in Egypt and many more.
How do you see the growth strategy for KSA in keeping with all the different developments in the kingdom?
With the introduction of Vision 2030, Saudi’s Tourism Development Strategy and the following socio-economic reforms, the Kingdom is poised for a new era of travel and tourism. We are witnessing a historic period of growth and transformation in the country which is conducive to both domestic and international tourism.
As a global hospitality player with the largest hotel room inventory by a variety of brands that cater to all travel segments across the country, we are well placed to cater to these new segments. In the mid to long term, we expect the hospitality market in Saudi Arabia to do well and, as a result, we are expanding our footprint across the Kingdom with a number of new signings.
Could you please share about the new rewards and loyalty programme?
As the world continues to evolve, so do we. With much anticipation, we are ushering in the next chapter for the rewards brand that defined hotel loyalty programs. IHG One Rewards celebrates individuality – giving members more control with the ability to choose to be rewarded in their own way. The programme’s new benefits, launching in early June 2022, are the result of extensive research into what guests truly want. The reimagined programme encompasses IHG Hotels & Resorts’ 17 brands and 6,000 hotels around the world, and now offers more choice and value than ever before.
