You had a very active few days at the Arabian Travel Market 2023, with quite a few announcements in this region alone…
Yes, we are very fortunate and blessed to have quite a number of tremendous projects [in the Middle East] from The Chedi. We have The Chedi Trojena, The Chedi Wadi Safar and The Chedi Hegra.

So why is the Middle East such a key focus for GHM at the moment?
We actually have a lot in the pipeline for the Middle East, with various different projects. Obviously, some don’t come to fruition, but I have never deviated from our plan of expanding in the Middle East. I’ve always believed that the Middle East is an untouched market in a lot of areas, especially when Saudi opened, this was the best opportunity for us to showcase our brand, and to bring people to the Middle East in a bigger way.

It’s an exciting time to be based in the Middle East and a privilege, I feel, to be able to help spotlight the beauty of this region…
Yes, definitely. And we are very fortunate to have a very core group of customers who are very loyal to the brands and our philosophy. And we want to continue that legacy that we built the brand on for so long. With Chedi, we always want to bring something for our guests to remember, and so we always select a site that will enable us to deliver a good story.

GHM is known for opening properties in unique locations. Can you tell us a little about your three new openings…
It’s a tough question! As we go along, we are trying to build a uniqueness for each individual property, and we are achieving it. Now, as we go along the design process, we are seeing distinct differences between the properties. But we’ll have to leave it at that, as I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag! But I can definitely say that from the mountains of Trojena to the landscape and UNESCO site of AlUla, and to the city living of Riyadh in Wadi Safar, there will be three very different experiences, and they will feel that from The Chedi Hotels, and the design concepts will be something to talk about.

Now, the theme of ATM centred around sustainability. As a hotelier and developer, how do you build a new hotel – or expand your existing portfolio – sensitively and responsibly?
Sustainability and ESG is always in our blood. When we first opened The Datai Langkawi in Malaysia [in 1993], you couldn’t actually import a lot of materials from, for example, the mainland of Malaysia, so you had to use a lot of local materials. And you had to train the locals to become service staff, and giving them new jobs, a new focus other than traditional farming. So, sustainability cuts across not just the green movement, but the social movement too. We are working with the local authorities and the commissions, to create new jobs for the locals, which is a big focus in Saudi. Talent is hard to come by now, so we had to re-train people and re-focus on the next step of the Saudi travel industry. So there’s a lot of social impact that will be happening in the travel industry. And we want to be on that bandwagon, beyond just the degrees of sustainability.

Of course – sustainability has to go beyond banning plastic straws. It has to be built from the ground-up, with a community-focus…
Exactly. It’s not just about whether you’re using the greenest materials, but it’s about the sustainability of longer-term and whether you’re retraining your local people to step up to a new lifestyle, responsibly, and give them the right tools and training to be able to adapt to the new frontier of Saudi Arabia.

It must be interesting to open in a place like Saudi that has no real tourism infrastructure as of yet?
It is, it’s very interesting, exciting and challenging! As you said, Saudi is going into a new frontier of tourism, so we are trying to attract as much talent locally, alongside international talent, to come join us on our bandwagon. We just try to best position ourselves in our own unique way to attract the best talent. But also to be seen a little more, too, compared to our olden days where we lived a little more under the radar.

What do you think your guests want now?
Well, wellness is a key trend at the moment, as is those looking for experiences – exploration and enriching experiences. I think it’s the generation of people that we now have, who prefer to have very concise, condensed content where they want to visit and explore many places in a shorter time. That is the new generation, which is driving the new industry, and it’s something we’re focusing on too. Which is why we now have a few more offerings in the Middle East where we can cross-sell all these experiences across the region – a true 360 approach.

Our DOTW News' audience is highly educated, informed and discerning travellers who enjoy luxury. Do you think luxury travel and sustainability can co-exist in some way?
I think, if you want to be sustainable, then on one end of the spectrum there will be compromise on comfort. And if it’s extreme, the compromise on the comfort level is too much for luxury travel and doesn’t make sense for our customers. We don’t necessarily want to be seen as the most sustainable organisation, but equally we never want to be seen as non-sustainable. But as we were saying, it’s not just about how ‘green’ you are, but how much you impact on the social impact of the population. And whether we can bring about new opportunities for the population. I think that is something we will work with more and try to encourage more, whilst also keeping abreast with the green movement.

I guess it’s not just the messaging of the hotel brand, but also what sets you apart from your peers at your very core.
Yes, absolutely. Our passion is to deliver the best product that you can remember for the rest of your life. That is our core.

I went to The Chedi Muscat maybe 12 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday!
I think what we do is hard to replicate. But we hope we can continue to reproduce the same level of experiences for our guests, especially like yourself, in all our properties. We have never stopped having the core or passion to let people understand our property in a different way, to let them enjoy the property in a way that you want them to remember for the rest of their lives.

With so many new and diverse destinations coming up for your hotels, what is it you look for when, say, scouting for a new location?
The location has to have a good story. Why? Because we want to learn so much about the location and its culture, and from there you can develop a proper hospitality experience. And we believe, that once we’ve done that, our customers will share the same vision as us, wanting to come to a location to understand more about the culture, the people, and the practices. That will go a long way.

Last question… beyond your three beautiful new properties in Saudi, what else is on the horizon?
Well, we still have properties in the pipeline for Asia and in Europe, in the next eight-to-12 months, which we will be making announcements about soon. Our next opening looks like Hegra, because it has the shortest delivery time. Then probably in Asia, and then back to the Middle East side. So, we’re looking at opening one property per year for the next five years. It’s our passion to deliver products that our customers really want to stay in, and we do what feels right. We’re a small group so we can’t take on too many, so we appeal to our customers to be patient with us so that we can deliver the goods.