With just over a decade to go until the World Cup, will Doha be able to establish itself as a complete destination that caters to more than just business travellers – and could transit passengers hold the key? Imthishan Giado reports
In the grand scheme of things, a decade is not a very long time at all if you’re on a mission to break new ground. For example, in the space race of the 1960s, it took just four scant years from the launch of the first satellite to put a man into space and less than eight years later, man walked on the moon.
A little over a decade is what Qatar now has in its very own space race – the race to be the first Arab country to successfully host the FIFA World Cup. Doha is under no illusions as to the importance of the event; the most recently-concluded iteration in South Africa showed that even a country home to some of the most dangerous streets in the world could successfully resuscitate its image.
Obviously, Doha’s challenges are different, but no less daunting. World Cup infrastructure including roads, public transit systems, airports — and of course hotels — cannot bloom overnight, as South Africa found, racing to meet the finish line.
Fortunately for Doha, even prior to the acquisition of the World Cup, the gas-rich country was attracting the attention of international hotel chains, all of which are rushing to set up shop.
But there’s a big difference, says Gavin Samson, MENA director of consultants Christie + Co, between the optimistic pipeline figures and what makes it to the market — and more importantly, when these hotels enter the market.
“The hotel pipeline is aggressive, particularly in terms of five-star inventory coming to the market over the next couple of years with delivery still focused on the West Bay area; over 2000 upscale rooms are still to be delivered in this area,” states Samson.
“Delivery of rooms has been somewhat erratic over the years as some of the hotels originally planned to open for the Asian Games in late 2006 have only just come on line, notably the Marriott Courtyard/Renaissance and Executive Apartments. With planning restrictions coming into force across the West Bay area, I expect hotel development to shift to other areas such as Lusail,” he continues.
Vanguelis Panayotis, director of development at MKG Hospitality agrees, saying this pace of development is unusual in a world currently gripped by slowdown and stagnating pipelines: “As per MKG Hospitality‘s database estimates, Qatar’s pipeline growth is currently at 6679 [rooms], of which the vast majority will be an integrated hotel chain. No doubt, Qatar’s hotel sector will continue to grow over the coming years, and this pipeline figure should surge ahead as the World Cup nears.”
The numbers are impressive – on paper. But in many cases, that is all that these hotels might ever amount to, figures on a piece of paper, or glowing pixels on a screen. While there is no danger of a bust, some, like Giorgio Lanfranchi, general manager of the Millennium & Copthorne Hotel Doha, have witnessed this cycle before and know what it can represent.
“There are more hotels coming up but they do not open overnight,” he counters. “They say they open 10 hotels, maybe they only open six – there are always delays. This year they are expecting over 2000 rooms coming in the market but they are spread throughout the year.
They will not open in January 2012, some in March, April, maybe some after the summer and some will not open [at all] because of delays. Qatar is not cheap, it has become expensive, a bit more expensive than Dubai.”
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