“This year has been better than the last so far. The average occupancy of the hotels in Bucharest has been 50%, compared with 46% last year. The summer season brought more customers for the seaside hotels, we saw a rebound in tourism,” the businessman said.
Murad has six seaside hotels, Phoenicia Holiday Resort, Perla Majestic, Majestic Olimp, Majestic Jupiter (and two under construction), which he says generated EUR10 million revenue this summer. He also owns two hotels in Bucharest, the Phoenicia Grand Hotel with 348 rooms and Phoenicia Express, which will generate EUR10 million in revenue, too. Murad opened Phoenicia Express in northern Bucharest at the end of 2009, after a EUR8 million investment.
“We built our next year budget around a 1% economic growth – I think the IMF’s 2.5% forecast is not realistic, and an exchange rate of 4.8 lei to one euro. I expect 8% higher revenue for my hotels,” he said.
Muhammad Murad says his hotels in Bucharest had more business guests this year, and interest and demand for the hotels in this city are on the rise.
With half the rooms occupied, the businessman says this is better than in 2009, when the hotels operated with a 43% occupancy rate, compared with 64% in 2008. That crisis year, the Murad laid off half of the employees of Phoenicia Grand Hotel and some of those working in the seaside hotels because of the revenue decline. Other hotel owners axed jobs, too.
Murad is one of the biggest investors in Romanian tourism by number of rooms in hotels. Other owners of hotels on the seaside are Josef Goschy, George Copos and Gheorghe Hagi.
The businessman started construction work on a new hotel announced in Navodari (SE Romania), to complement the Phoenicia Holiday Resort. The hotel will have 300 rooms and will require a several million-euro investment. It should be completed by next June, Murad said.
The Lebanese-born businessman came to Romania to attend medical school when he was 19. He graduated in 1988 and did not work as a physician for long, because he decided to keep the family tradition and start a business.
Other than hotels, Murad also owns Spring Time restaurant chain, Mandy meat spread producer and real estate businesses.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)