Atmosphere Hotels & Resorts is seeing a sizeable jump in business from the Middle East market, witnessing a 250 per cent increase in room nights, Stephane Laguette, senior vice-president Sales & Marketing, tells TTN.
“We were not very well known in the Middle East but that has changed over the last one year. We are getting more interest from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. Although our numbers are small – we can say that we have gone from 200 room nights from the region to more than 600 in the space of a year.”
Atmosphere Hotels & Resorts is a fast-growing Indian Ocean Hotels & Resorts group based in the Maldives, which offers different types of premium all-inclusive plans. Atmosphere’s first property; Atmosphere Kanifushi opened its doors in December 2013; quickly followed by OBLU by Atmosphere at Helengeli in November 2015; OZEN by Atmosphere opened in July 2016, OBLU Select in July 2018. The most recent opening has been VARU by Atmosphere, which offers the Platinum Plus Plan.
“Gastronomy wise, we are moving in a different direction; we are bringing in exclusive bubblies and grapes that no one else is serving in the Indian Ocean. We are going with boutique, ‘terroir’ products. Our team is going to some very high quality, small producers, producers that people don't know about, to source our drinks and in the process, moving away from the big names.
“We want the guests to have something which is unique and hence are moving in the direction to have products, which cannot be found elsewhere and they will all be part of the plan.
“It’s not just exclusive grapes and bubblies, we are doing the same thing for vinegars, we source our balsamic from a specific area in Italy, we source our breads from a certain area in Germany, and so on and so forth.”
Going forward, Atmosphere Hotels & Resorts is planning to take a leap into food festivals as part of their plans, no charges extra. “Another thing we are currently working on is food festivals headlined by two or three Michelin star chefs, who we bring to our restaurants for a week. Our guests will find that the food festival is part of their plan and no supplement needs to be paid. We are working with a couple of chefs and the idea is to have more food festivals in 2020.
“We are currently putting the final details together on a chocolate festival, which will be in collaboration with a big brand. There’s also a Japanese food festival on the cards.
“With the exclusive food festivals, we have certainly taken the plan to another level.”
Atmosphere Kanifushi is having the first ‘just-veg’ food festival in the Maldives, for which the property has partnered with a one Michelin-star Italian chef, who specialises in vegetarian food. “He will be training our team, changing the menu, and for one week our guests will enjoy a special food festival without any extra cost.
“We need to be one step ahead of the game. No one is taking the unique culinary angle, so we think this is a step in the right direction.”
Atmosphere Hotels & Resorts offers guest-centric resort experiences through unique holiday plans, offering guests a range of all-encompassing experiences, with varieties of dining options as well as a number of complimentary amenities and activities that ensure a relaxed, hassle-free holiday experience at each resort, all while staying true to the brands core philosophy ‘The Joy of Giving’.