The best opportunities in hotels and hospitality in Iraqi Kurdistan are now in the budget sector, the MEED Kurdistan Projects conference in Erbil was told this afternoon.
“Based on our original studies, it made very good sense to investg in five-star hotels,” Erbil Rotana Hotel general manager Thomas Touma said. “Now, with the new market changes, budget hotels and three-star hotels now make very good sense.”
Touma said domestic tourists can’t afford luxury hotels. “The domestic market requires budget properties more than four-five star hotels,” he said.
Head of Colliers International hotel asset management practice Selim el-Zein told the conference that the number of visitors from Iraq staying hotels in the Kurdistan region are estimated to have risen to 2.3m in 2013. This compares with 660,000 in 2009.
MEED’s Kurdistan Projects 2014 Conference was organised in collaboration with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the KDBC and the UKTI. Taqa is strategic event partner. Conference sponsors are Drake & Scull, Falcon Group and Hill International. Jotun is exhibitor and Parsons is networking programme sponsor.