We are seeing bookings coming from neighbouring countries in the Gulf region as well as demand for local staycations from residents and locals within the markets, says Mark Willis, CEO, Turkey, India, ME & Africa, Accor.
Shehara Rizly
How has the demand been from local and regional markets for the ME?
We are seeing very positive demand from both local as well as regional markets for Middle East. With the ease of travel restrictions, we are seeing bookings coming from neighbouring countries in the Gulf region as well as demand for local staycations from residents and locals within the markets. Staycations are proving to be quite popular since the ease of restrictions, especially in the UAE which was one of the first countries to ease both internal travel and international travel. We are also seeing the same trend in Egypt and Morocco, where locals and residents are choosing to spend their weekends in hotels. Until international travel resumes to pre-COVID levels, and travel restrictions ease, we are seeing staycations as a very positive trend.
What trends do you foresee post the pandemic?
The main trends we have seen this year which I foresee will continue are:
Transparency in communication: Guests want to feel safe and be aware of everything we are doing to ensure their safety more than ever before. For this reason, we
have launched the ALLSAFE programme in partnership with Bureau Veritas to ensure guests can be aware of the steps that are being taken on a daily basis in the hotel.
Flexibility in cancellation: We all know that making long-term plans can be quite tricky nowadays. As regulations change very regularly, which may impact travel, we need to ensure we provide enough flexibility for our guests to be able to move or cancel their stay at short notice.
Technological advancements: Hand-in-hand with safety, COVID has accelerated the need to advance technological features in the hospitality industry. Some of these have been included in our ALLSAFE programme, such as digital menus that can be viewed on your own mobile, WhatsApp communication with hotel teams and self check-in/check-out when at the hotel.
Value for money: This year has impacted everyone to some degree. At Accor Middle East & Africa we recognize the need to be able to offer guests our services and fantastic locations at an affordable rate. With this in mind, we have launched an exclusive 50 per cent off for our loyalty members when they sign up for the programme (which is free) and book our hotels through their profile. This offer is running until the end of the year for stays until March 2021.
As of now, are more bookings being done online?
Currently we are seeing a positive trend in direct individual bookings mainly from the leisure market. Some of our source markets traditionally still book through agents or operators so we will see these bookings increase once travels restrictions ease in these markets.
When do you think group travel will resume?
Group travel is highly dependent on flight paths opening as well as the decrease in travel regulations. We believe we will start to see some pick up in the coming months, however we will only see the same levels of business we saw in 2019 across all segments by Q4 2021.
Would you look at new recruitments for next year? Or will you call back some of the staff?
Our main priority is to rehire any team members that may have been unfortunately affected by business levels dropping during COVID-19. We are actively working with hotels which are starting to recruit to ensure these team members are looked at first before looking in the market. So far we have very positive results with a number of team members already rehired in some of our upcoming property openings, as well as existing properties which are seeing business levels increase and therefore the demand for team members onsite increase.
“Until international travel resumes and travel restrictions ease, we are seeing staycations as a very positive trend”
