Travel and Tourism

New hotel rankings in Abu Dhabi to factor in environmental sustainability

TCA Abu Dhabi has been running workshops on green hotels and sustainability practices including energy efficiency technology, measurement of energy and water use and waste recycling.

The National staff

January 28, 2015

The Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority is developing a new hotel ratings system that will include how efficiently water and energy is being used on the property, it said.

According to an article published yesterday in Al Ittihad, The National's Arabic sister newspaper, the Estidama Pearl Rating System for buildings, which "encourages water, energy and waste minimisation, local material use and aims to improve supply chains for sustainable and recycled materials and products" is being considered for inclusion in the new system, said Nasser Al Reyami, director of tourism standards at TCA Abu Dhabi.

The current system classifies hotels and resorts on a sliding scale of one to five stars, and hotel apartments are classified as either standard, superior or deluxe, according to the TCA Abu Dhabi website.

“An upgrade to this one-of-a-kind system is now in the pipeline.

“This soon-to-be-launched system will incorporate several new aspects, including a category for exceptional properties, which are deemed to be superior to the normal five-star criteria, will introduce new categories such as beach hotels and airport hotels, and will also absorb TCA Abu Dhabi’s Green Hotel guidelines,” the website says.

Mr Al Reyami said the authority was working with Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council to create the guidelines.

TCA Abu Dhabi has been running workshops on green hotels and sustainability practices including energy efficiency technology, maintenance of air-conditioning systems, measurement of energy and water use, waste recycling and indoor air quality management.

Mr Al Reyami said that the proposed system would also include any health and safety risks that needed to be identified and reported and mechanisms for the reporting of environmental performance regarding water, waste and energy.

TCA Abu Dhabi has also been working with the environment and health and safety authorities to improve the health and safety framework for the tourism industry, according to Mr Al Reyami.

He also said that a seafood sustainability study had been completed and that hotels would be instructed not to serve certain types of threatened fish species in their restaurants.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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