Neil Shah
How has the Indian market changed for Atlantis, Dubai?
So what has changed is that we believe post-Covid, we will be witnessing a very different trend of travel. There is more demand for long stays, for luxury travel and there is a lot of travel design happening. And then these are all repeat clients coming as Dubai is just a three hour travel from India, which has got a lot of repeat clientele even for us.
Today, guests know what they want. They probably have been to Atlantis, but feel that they have not done justice since they stayed for a shorter period. They have now come back to us and staying for 4-5 nights. So, we have seen a shift in the length of stay. Talking of Atlantis the Royal, we had a beautiful opening. We are getting a great response from the Indian market, which is among our top 10 nationalities.
They understand luxury, they also love our restaurants and in terms of demand, we are getting excellent bookings for our penthouses or Royal Mansion, which is almost USD 100,000 a night suite as well the sky pool villa, which is a one bedroom pool villa.
How big is the Indian market for you?
So, we have clients booking the penthouse for USD 100,000 and also those booking our double guest rooms, that cost USD 1,000 a night as well. In terms of top nationalities, it definitely is UK, followed by the Russians and the UAE market.
But I see that people are willing to spend more, and there is a shift in spending power. So we are seeing good numbers come in. We had a great summer and then now from October onwards, we know it is a peak for Dubai with the weather only getting better.
Which segment of Indian tourists works the best for you?
Atlantis the Palm would have mostly family-oriented guests and would have a lot of young crowd aged between 35 and 45 coming because they are the ones who can really celebrate, or come and enjoy activities like the water park, the marine animal interactions and of course the restaurants and the nightlife that we have. In Royal, we see the well travelled guests as well as those coming in for the novelty factor.
How is business for the weddings and MICE at Atlantis, Dubai?
From meetings to events to incentives to conferences to weddings, we are getting a great marketshare from India, which would be one of the biggest contributors towards the MICE business that we have. But I keep saying that even if we have 10 pc of total MICE business from India, it is not so great as we have 1544 rooms at the Palm and another 795 at the Royal. So there is a great potential to increase it as it is just 3 hours away. For a lot of corporates, it makes it very practical sense as they save a lot in flights and they can come and experience luxury as well.
Which are your key source cities in India?
For Atlantis the Palm we are getting a great response from the Tier II and Tier III cities as well. We are getting amazing luxury demand from Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad. For the Royal, being the beginning of the year and with the trainings that we have done, I can say that it has been a good start for the metros and business will only spread incrementally from there.
How do you prevent cannibalisation between your two properties?
Look, we don’t need to because the pricing automatically segregates it and so do the offerings. There is a slight cannibalisation, I wouldn’t say no to it, but it is just 10 pc and it automatically filters with the pricing or exchange. We welcome all and as you know both the properties are very well known and established. India has been in the top five markets from the beginning and we very much will maintain that market share.
