Jumeirah Group, a Dubai-based luxury hospitality company and member of Dubai Holding, is studying the prospects of opening hotels in Saudi Arabia, said Christian Pertl, vice president of sales and marketing of Jumeirah Group in MEASA region.

He was speaking to Arab News during the company’s Jeddah road show.

Its GCC road show has already covered Riyadh, Kuwait, Doha and Abu Dhabi, highlighting its 20 luxury hotels, resorts and residences across 11 destinations worldwide.

The group reported an 11.3 percent increase in occupancy rates to 71.3 percent for the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012.

The Kingdom contributes significantly to the revenue growth of the GCC market business into each region, which is up 41.2 percent on last year.

“We are paying close attention to our Saudi guests because it is a very important market for Jumeirah, and we are visiting Jeddah and Riyadh now because we want to introduce the public to all our properties globally,” said Pertl.

“Another big reason is we are actively seeking and looking into opportunities to develop hotels in the Kingdom,” he added.

Finding the right partner, project and location is not an easy job because Jumeirah operates on high-end luxury so they have to make sure all the boxes are ticked.

“This will never stop us from looking into several opportunities and I think we are pretty confidant that something is coming that will make us as a group happy and make our Saudi clients and guests happy as well,” Pertl said.

“This might take a while because if we are going into partnership with somebody we have to make sure it is the right one; we cannot attach the Jumeirah name to just any hotel,” he added.

Social media plays a major role in the hospitality sector and Jumeirah utilizes it in every possible way. “We are actively using and managing social media for two reasons — it is free publicity and marketing and, secondly, it is because we are always seeking the feedback from our guests,” said Sumaya Khalfan, manager of corporate communications of Jumeirah Group.

“Each hotel has its own social media network because it makes it easier to focus on each guest closely,” she added.