Saturday 28 / December / 2024
Muscat: Anantara Jabal Akhdar may be situated in the mountains, but that hasn’t stopped it from trying to scale new heights.
The resort celebrated the anniversary of its first year of operations in Oman this week, and while it has been a memorable 12 months for Anantara, Firas Rashid, its director of Sales and Marketing, has one eye fixed firmly on the future.
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“It’s been a great year for all of us at Anantara Jabal Akhdar,” he said, speaking exclusively to the Times of Oman. “We’ve had 29,000 nights worth of guest bookings in the last year, and the response from both the team and the hotel and the guests has been fantastic.”
“If you look at the landscape of Jabal Akhdar, the mountains contrast with the canyons really well, and that gives you a truly spectacular view, which you may not get in other parts of the Middle East, so I think it is safe to say that there are no other mountains like this in the GCC,” he added.
“We are thrilled to celebrate our first anniversary, which represents a significant milestone for our resort and the destination,” said Darren Darwin, general manager of Anantara Jabal Akhdar. “I couldn’t be more proud of the success that we have achieved thus far, and with many exciting plans in the pipeline, this is only the beginning of the journey.
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“Since opening our doors, we have been dedicated to providing authentic experiences, from rock climbing and abseiling to cookery classes and mountaintop yoga, allowing guests to connect to the surrounding landscape and culture,” he added. “We are confident that our resort will continue to inspire travellers from around the world to visit and experience all that this unique destination has to offer.”
Although the resort is a very popular destination during the cooler months of the year, Anantara Jabal Akhdar being situated about 2,000 feet above sea level makes it a very viable destination in the summer as well.
“During the summer, most of the tourists we get are from the GCC nations,” revealed Rashid.
“Omani residents are first on that list, and then we have visitors from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, because it is about 15 degrees cooler in the mountains than it is on the ground, and they really enjoy the cool weather.”
“During the tourist season from October to April, we see mostly European and Western tourists join us to spend their holidays,” he added. “Our top foreign visits from Europe come from the U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Spain. I do not mind adding that we have been pleasantly surprised to see visitors come to Oman just to spend a few days with us, from Russia, India and China.”
Rashid was quick to explain how the presence of guests from these three nations would help spur future growth for the resort.
“It was a really good thing to see these guests come, because all of them were VIP guests, who flew to Oman by private jet, and came all the way up the mountain, to experience the hospitality at Anantara,” he said. “We were so happy to have them come here with us, having booked through travel agents who specialise in luxury bookings.”
In fact, it is these three markets that Rashid hopes will add to Anantara Jabal Akhdar’s visitor numbers in the future.
“We are going to Russia for a presentation for some travel agents there, and then, we are going to China to take part in a tourism conference, where we will also receive an award from a magazine named Robb Report,” he said. “I am very happy to say that we are the only hotel from outside China to win this award, and that shows our position in this market.”
“We have also received many other awards in the past, and have been mentioned in many prominent magazines, such as Travel+Leisure, Forbes and Conde Nast, so this will only help us make a name for ourselves as one of Oman’s premier resorts in future as well.”
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