Tareq Bagaeen
All Eyes on India: Why the World Is Watching
HotStats | September 20, 2024
With over two and a half decades in the hospitality industry, my experience spans markets that have attracted both international interest and domestic excitement. The initial Dubai buzz in 1999, following the opening of Burj Al Arab, made a powerful statement and set off a wave of impressive assets in quick succession. While recent years have brought magnificent hotels like Atlantis the Royal, the true sweet spot for me was about 15 years ago when each visit to Dubai revealed a dramatically changing landscape. Vietnam also experienced a boom, with signings happening almost weekly, though this momentum faded faster than expected due to corr...
APAC: Economic Boom or Financial Gloom?
HotStats | July 3, 2024
By Tareq Bagaeen 2024 has been very intense. Throughout my career as a hotelier, I've gone through 9/11, a few wars, a world financial crisis, pandemics, and a tsunami to name but a few significant milestones. And yet, 2024 has been the most intense year for me thus far in the quarter century of hospitality life. So, what is going on? It seems like my email inbox is impossible to keep clean. Projects keep stacking up one after another, I've already flown over 185,000 miles in 180 days, and every time I open LinkedIn, I find news of a major new signing or opening for the hotel industry around the Asia Pacific, and on top of it all I see ...
Rivalry Brewing: UAE Vs. Saudi Arabia
Tareq Bagaeen | March 25, 2024
By Tareq Bagaeen It is no secret that The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is changing. Over just the past five years the change has been staggering, both socially, and politically as well as a dramatic shift in its economic vision. Oil & Gas has been the foundation of its strength, and it continues to be but the shift to diversify is massive. Great festivals bolster their main cities and act as significant drivers of local tourism; Formula E has been lighting up Riyadh since 2018; Formula 1 since 2021 in Jeddah, along with a host of significant political and business conferences. Of course, Hajj & Umrah are another major stream of inbou...
Hotel Market Report: Asia’s Path Forward in 2024
HotStats | December 15, 2023
By Tareq Bagaeen Earlier this week I was talking to a regional commercial head of Asia for one of the world’s largest hotel chains and the view forward into 2024 is one of concern, to say the least. At the moment, the hotel benchmarking data look goods; for many destinations within this region, 2023 was a record year both in terms of topline revenue as well as Gross Operating Profit (GOP). Expectations are significant for the coming year; thus, the higher than usual level of apprehension. Let us start with the GOP king of Asia, and, all the world: Maldives. A destination that has a GOP figure of just under 300 USD per...
