Oman's eco-savvy sanctuary

zoom

Naim Maadad hopes that guests will learn and take something away from their experience at Zighy Bay.

Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay general manager Naim Maadad talks to Hotelier Middle East about setting the regional benchmark with a venue that is the last word in eco-friendly luxury.

What was the appeal of this location for the latest Six Sense property?

The owning company behind Zighy Bay had actually shown us four sites and we kept saying no because they weren't special or unique enough, but the first time we crossed the mountain top and saw this site, the thing that hit us was the tranquillity; that was really the deciding factor.

That's when we said 'where do we sign'! And it will stay that way, because we've been promised that across the whole bay, nothing else will be built - it's purely for this project.

Tell us about the facilities.

We have 82 pool villas; the entry-level size has three showers - your outdoor shower, a bathtub shower and a walk-in shower - a wine cellar housing up to 22 bottles, and then all the usual facilities such as Wi-Fi, flat-screen TV and so on.

From a food and beverage perspective we have three restaurants: the main dining room, open for breakfast and dinner; the hill-top restaurant, Dining on the Edge, at the top of one of the nearby mountains, which will hopefully be operational [by April] and which will focus on fresh local food and have an extensive wine cellar; the third restaurant is a beach restaurant offering sea food.

There will be no menu there, just the catch of the day from the local fishermen.

Then of course there's the spa, which will be fully operational [as of March]. It has nine treatment rooms which can accommodate two people, so you can offer two treatments at any time in any given room. They all have private facilities and some of them have an outdoor space too, where you can extend a treatment as well as a shower outdoors.

There's a juice bar where the focus is solely on vegetables and the like. And the highlight is two Arabian hamams, on each side of the resort, which are fantastic for health and wellbeing. Over and above that, we actually have a balanced cuisine menu which is offered.

It's more about a life journey rather than a treatment. It's not just walking in, having the treatment and walking out; you actually get your blood tested, your heart rate checked - there's a whole sequence before you can receive any treatment, to make sure the recommendation is suitable for your body.

How have you priced yourself in the local market?

I think pricing is really secondary to what we have on offer here, because people do come because of the experience and for the chance to learn about the lifestyle more than anything else.

The average room rate is around US $1000 per night for an entry-level pool villa. Having said that, there will be specials throughout the year during different seasons, but rates will basically start from $1000 and go right up to the private reserve, which will be $15,000 a night. But that's 3000m² and four bedrooms, so you're really housing eight people.

Six Senses called this 'the region's first eco-friendly resort'; what green measures are in place?

Everything we do is considered alongside the environment; any resource we use is renewable. For example regarding our suppliers, we don't have anything that comes in plastic packaging. Everything bottled has to be in glass so we know it's recyclable. We don't have any microwaves throughout the buildings - we don't use anything that damages individuals.

That's only the beginning, but we do hope that when people are staying with us they pick up elements and take them home.

We also have our social environments division; whether its beach cleaning or buying policies and procedures, they keep everyone aware of what's happening.

What does the future hold for Six Senses Zighy Bay?

Without sounding too confident, there is amazing demand in the market place. So for the first rate increase we're going up 30% on the entry level product, because of the demand.

We're hoping that a lot of the projects to follow will have environmental aspects as part of their development process as well, so we want to set the benchmark in the region as we have done in the Maldives and in Vietnam.

What are Six Senses' plans for the rest of the region?

We're getting a lot of interest shown in the company and people are asking us to join forces with them, but again we seem to be saying a lot of 'no' rather than 'yes', purely based on partners, locations, destinations, and of course the financial aspect.

Regarding partners, we need to make sure that whoever actually signs up with us understands the importance we place on environment and social responsibility, communities and so on, because that doesn't come at a cheap price; it has attachments to it.

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

READERS' COMMENTS

View all comments (0)

Have your say

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM