While FRHI Hotels & Resorts' development pipeline in Asia is no less aggressive than many of its competitors in the luxury segment, the center of gravity of its development lies a bit further to the west.
The company—formed in 2006 when Fairmont merged with Raffles and Swissôtel—is pursuing "huge growth on a management/contract basis, but we're strategically growing," said FRHI Americas president Kevin Frid, speaking recently at a media breakfast in New York.
As such, FRHI currently concentrates much more on the Middle East than the Far East. In addition to a Raffles property that this year opened in Istanbul, the company during the next several years plans a Raffles property in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Fairmont properties in Riyadh, Istanbul, Amman, Jeddah and Fujairah and Ajman in the United Arab Emirates; and two Swissôtel properties in Bodrum, Turkey, as well as properties in Jeddah and Dubai.
"It's not too often that the other big brands chase us, but the Middle East is an exception," Frid said. "Over the next couple of years, we plan to have 30 hotels there, and the Middle East is a pretty small area."
That's not to say China is not on FRHI's development radar, but that growth will "stick to big centers and resorts, and try to avoid the third-tier cities," according to Frid. He added that economy and midprice properties tend to be the major drivers of hotel growth in China, where occupancy trends much lower compared with the United States.
While the United States and Canada region remains FRHI's largest by number of properties, growth there during the next several years will be limited. Fairmont this year acquired the Claremont Hotel Club & Spa in Berkeley, Calif., and the only other project currently in the pipeline is a Fairmont in Austin, Texas, slated to open in 2017.
Regarding corporate business specifically, Frid noted that corporate transient business "continues to grow at a nice, steady pace" and that group business "is essentially back now, though it looks a little different than it used to."
"Group business has grown 7 to 8 percent over the last couple of years, and we see that occurring again next year," added Jeff Doane, FRHI vice president of sales and marketing in the Americas. "Meetings are shorter, and the level of attendance is lower, so we're booking a lot more groups to get back to those numbers."