Avillion’s Gricia Gan on plans for hotel division

Avillion's Gricia Gan discussed plans for the hotel division. Excerpts from the interview.

STARBIZ: What are the plans for the hotel division?

Gricia Gan: We are working to make Port Dickson the main hub for the Klang Valley Southern Corridor and an anchor for the hotel division.

Grixia Tan

Port Dickson will be a spa and golf getaway while Malacca is more for historical holidays. The spa to be built in the Avillion Port Dickson will be the first concept spa there and help facilitate Port Dickson as a leisure destination. We are also focusing on corporate activities including meetings and brainstorming sessions.

We are currently increasing the capacity of our banquet and convention facilities as well as creating more interesting products for this market segment.

We will also have a re-branding exercise to elevate the brand status of Avillion and to add new values to the brand.

Who are your target markets for the hub?

People in Malaysia and Singapore will be the base market while the secondary market will be people coming in from the KL International Airport (KLIA) and Changi Airport.

KLIA has a lot of leisure traffic from North Asia such as Taiwan and Hong Kong while Changi attracts a lot of people from Europe, Australia and some peripheral markets like Thailand and Indonesia.

Will the group be increasing the number of hotels it is currently managing?

We plan to open two Avillion hotels in the financial year ending March 31, 2008 – Avillion Marina View All Suite Hotel (158 rooms) in Port Dickson and are looking at managing another hotel.

We plan to open the Avillion Marina View by year-end to complement the Avillion Port Dickson.

It will be managed by our hotel management company and will generate a recurring income for the division in the next three years. Target average occupancy rate (AOR) is about 80% and average room rate (ARR) RM115.

The strategy is to increase the AOR substantially while maintaining a slight increase in ARR, resulting in a stronger bottomline.

When will the Avillion Marina View All Suite Hotel be completed?

The Avillion Marina View, which has a gross development value (GDV) of RM56mil is expected to be completed in April.

We have sold about 50% of the suites as apartments under the resort development division. They are then leased back to us for the hotel with a 6.5% return per annum nett.

What else is in the pipeline for Port Dickson?

Our pipeline of projects include the 158 Marina Vista Hotel suites (GDV RM60mil) to commence in 2008 and the 870 Marina View Service Apartment (GDV RM200mil) in 2010 or earlier depending on demand. Another 30 acres of prime land has been earmarked for further developments.

Source : STAR
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