Accor to ramp up presence

By Sharen Kaur

KUALA LUMPUR: France-based hotel group Accor S.A. is ramping up its presence in Malaysia as it is upbeat on the local tourism industry, says Eric Tan, the general manager for Pullman Kuala Lumpur Bangsar.

According to him, Accor will manage hotels for operators in Langkawi, Penang, Malacca, Port Dickson, Kota Baru, Johor Baru and Sandakan.

"There are many places in Malaysia that require hotel rooms. We are in talks with hotel owners who have approached us to manage their properties under our brands.

"We will do our own assessment and study the development theme to see if it suits any of our brands.

"We will also evaluate the potential of our brand in that area. We are very strict and will not compromise on the brand," he told Business Times in an interview, here, recently.

Accor is the world's largest hotel chain manager with a presence in 92 countries and operates close to 4,000 hotels with more than 600,000 rooms.

The group provides an extensive range of accommodations - from luxury to budget, and serviced apartment facilities - operating under 13 brands.

In Malaysia, it manages eight hotels with 2,520 rooms under the Pullman, Novotel and Ibis Styles brands in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Kuching.

Tan said Accor will be adding more hotels to its portfolio over the next two years.

These include Mercure Kota Kinabalu, Mercure Selayang, Mercure Bandar Sri Damansara, Mercure Shaw Parade, Ibis Styles Sandakan and Novotel Malacca.

For fiscal year 2013, the Accor group reported a profit of Euro126 million (RM567 million) and Euro5.5 billion revenue. As as the end-2013, it has total assets of Euro7 billion.

"Indonesia is the best performer for Accor in Asia and Malaysia is catching up. Accor will focus on growth in Malaysia," Tan said.