Emirates Hotels & Resorts is poised to roll out several exclusive and innovative top-end properties, most probably in the Southern Hemisphere.
Hans Haensel, senior vice president for the destination & leisure management division at Emirates revealed that up to 50 new properties were in the pipeline if the right locations could be found.
“They will all be south of Dubai,” he revealed. “But we want to come up with a unique product wherever we are.”
Haensel said Emirates Hotels & Resorts had no intention of being “another Banyan Tree, Four Seasons or Hyatt”.
“We have to take the approach that it will be a challenge. It’s the same as the airline in the early days. We have to be different and innovative,” he said.
“We might have 10 or 20 hotels, we might have 50; we don’t know yet. Right now we are busy with what we have.”
He was speaking as the company revealed plans to spend $253 building the Emirates Cap Ternay Resort on Mahe, which is slated to open in 2010.
Located 45 minutes by winding road from Mahe Airport, to which Emirates Airline currently flies four times weekly, the 22-acre resort will follow the same principles of sister properties Al Maha in Dubai and Wolgan Valley.
Wolgan Valley is currently being built in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, but adapted to its location.
Conservation of the environment will be paramount when building and operating the Creole-style resort and ensuring service excellence will be high on the priority list.
Conservation-wise, the resort will be made a feral-free zone and endangered and unique animal and plant species will be rejuvenated or re-introduced. One of the resort’s two main beaches will be a marine reserve, home to turtles and native wildlife.
Haensel said the property would feature three hotels in one. The main low rise building at Emirates Cap Ternay Resort will feature 186 rooms planned for families, budget conscious travellers, and also ideal for meetings or incentives groups, with prices leading in at around the $200 per night mark.
The second tier of accommodation, also located in the main resort area will comprise semi-detached cottage-style complexes housing 230 deluxe rooms, situated in landscaped beachfront locations.
A private resort area with its own reception and spa and modeled on the exclusivity, standards and luxury benchmarked at Al Maha will offer 15 water-bungalows – the first of their kind in the Seychelles – as well as 40 two-bedroom villas, each more than 150m², and a 600m² presidential suite.
Additional resort features include a 2.5-hectare swimming pool, a Timeless Spa, seven F&B outlets, the most extensive conference and meetings facilities in the Seychelles, two beaches and many coves, as well as a children’s play area complete with tree houses and a pirate ship.
Activities will include walks and nature trails in the national park, water sports, fishing and boat trips.
Haensel said the resort would see a return on investment of about 16-17% in “eight to nine years” with an occupancy of 65-70% anticipated in the first two years, rising to 75% thereafter.
“This will be a profit centre in its own right,” he said.
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