Rudi Jagersbacher, President, Hilton Worldwide, Middle East and Africa.THE coming year will be one of new openings for Hilton Worldwide in the Middle East and Africa. The company plans to launch around 11 new hotels across the region, including three new markets and brands. According to Rudi Jagersbacher, President, Hilton Worldwide, Middle East and Africa, the company sees a number of conversion opportunities across the region with a new development office in South Africa and hopes to sign more properties. “Our development pipeline consists of 28 hotels (9,025 rooms). Next year we will open our first DoubleTree by Hilton and Conrad hotels in the region and at the same time we will open hotels in Qatar, Jordan and Namibia for the first time. Over the next few years, we're expanding the Hilton Worldwide footprint in Saudi Arabia with new hotels in Riyadh and Al-Khobar and we also have new properties in Kuwait, the UAE, Egypt and Jordan to look forward to,” he remarked. Hilton Hotels and Resorts has a strong presence in the region and Hilton is also tapping into the luxury market with Conrad and Waldorf Astoria. “But the Middle East hotel market is also more and more interested in focused service brands like Hilton Garden Inn and DoubleTree by Hilton – bringing these brands into the marketplace opens the region up to a new set of travelers and gives our current visitors more choice,” added Jagersbacher. For the company, the Middle East continued to show strong results in comparison to other markets in 2010. While occupancies have improved, Jagersbacher believes that the industry needs to turn its focus to rate.
