At the recently concluded Arabian Travel Market 2019 in Dubai, Business Traveller India caught up with Thomas Willms, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Hospitality, where he spoke to us in detail about the German group’s bullish expansion plans in the Middle East.

Egypt seems to be a big focus for your group right now. Tell us more.

Egypt has always been a big focus for us as Germans love to travel to Egypt and even to Dubai. Recently, we have signed on a new Jaz in the City in Dubai, which is a nice addition after Amsterdam, and Stuttgart. It is a lifestyle brand and its focus is music and fashion. It is an important brand for us so I think Dubai, and its whole lifestyle element, is the right city for this brand.

Is this a response to the changing demographic of luxury customers, as they become more lifestyle oriented?

Our mother brand is Deutsche Hospitality. We started 90 years ago and established traditional brands in Germany. Our brand has one hotel in Dubai, in the business space. We established the IntercityHotel chain 30 years ago, which is largely found in the major traffic capitals, airports and main stations. We have roughly 40 hotels. Since the lifestyle segment was missing, we established Jaz in the City in Amsterdam. We also have a conversion brand, which we launched last year. Recently, we bought over a Scandinavian brand, which has 16 hotels in Sweden and Denmark. Now, we have five brands under our umbrella, which is already a good number for us.

How does your brand position itself in the Middle East since the region already has a very well established hospitality market?

The Middle East is less USA-centric than Europe, which has more American traffic. Europe is the main target for the Middle East. The Germans are important travellers to the UAE. We have brand credibility so we can bring more business in this region. We will open the IntercityHotel in Dubai in June this year. Jaz in the City will be following. So, we have already set up an office here, three years ago, with different teams including sales, technical, marketing, development and HR as a hub from Frankfurt. From here we run India, China and Bangkok where we will be establishing a new hotel.

How are you drawing the line between the expansion of the business segment and the leisure segment?

It generally depends on the location. In Germany, IntercityHotel is a pure business brand. In Egypt and Dubai, it more leisure than business and we have resorts in Spain and Austria where the leisure segment is a focus point for us. Our targets are now Italy and Greece since we do not do business there. We wish to be stronger in eastern Europe including Prague and Budapest.

How many Jaz hotels have you established across the globe?

We have three Jaz hotels around the globe including Amsterdam, Vienna and Stuttgart. We have a good pipeline and the brand is a full service, upscale lifestyle design hotel. We are very excited for the Dubai one to open.

What we should keep our eyes on going forward?

We have 90 years of history, credibility, tradition and precision. We have relaunched the brand and we have invested 120 million euros. This year, the brand will be in evolution. There are many good things regarding the brand, a lot of love and loyalty. We are very careful in its reshaping for the future.