SPECIAL REPORT
ALTERNATIVE LODGING
ALTERNATIVE LODGING:
FROM REFINED TO RUSTIC Encouraging a new wave of small hotels and local entrepreneurial ventures while valuing heritage and the environment is something Daniel During, principal and managing director of Thomas Klein International, feels strongly about. Here, he describes what the Middle East’s hospitality sector should be focusing on if it is to compete with other markets.
Back in 2015, I wrote an article about the need to turn on the genuine charm and stop the hyperbolic race to be the biggest and coolest, and have the tallest and latest, and instead focus on the local culture, geography, history and landscape. Well, with the latest Meraas developments in Hatta and various other locations in the Emirates, this need has at last been addressed. We finally have accommodation available in lodges nestled in nature, instead of resorts built around artificially created reefs, islands and beaches. The GCC has so much to offer that I always felt it was a pity to limit our touristic offering to city, beach and desert luxury resorts. There is a class of traveler today who looks beyond the luxury and seeks the experience.
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HOSPITALITY NEWS ME | APR-MAY 2022
The sensation of virgin soil between your toes, hearing birds chirping and listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the ghaf trees all have value beyond the price you pay for a hotel room. In our technology-obsessed world of e-meetings and conference calls, there are those who seek respite from it all: individuals who need time to think, develop ideas, design, create and synergize while walking - barefoot - on the sand or soil of remote locations.
Identifying the markets There are at least two markets willing to pay for a place to stay away from it all, where nature is the only neighbor. The first is the luxury market, one in which the GCC in general, and the UAE in particular, specialize.
The second was finally addressed by Dubai a few years ago with the creation of Rove hotels. This market is younger and has less available cash to spend on one room night, but travels more and spends a greater amount overall on room nights per year. Many of these travelers are geo-tourists; they seek beauty in destinations through their nature, heritage and people. For them, originality trumps luxury. Their trip is about the destination, not about the FF&E, the marketing network, the imported cheese from France or the spa therapist from Sweden. They are looking for true Arabian hospitality, and they do not necessarily want to be pampered or fluffed and buffed. They want to feel the heat on their skin, the dryness of the desert, the rocks under their
