With a diverse 20-year career in hospitality across multiple geographies including Africa, Amir Golbarg can tell you how locations you never knew existed can lend to rapturous storytelling, and he has many a tale to tell on the continent.
We are in a sleek boardroom with glass windows overlooking gleaming towers at the Dubai International Financial Centre; the searing August sun in Dubai beams on, never once letting you forget the vagaries of a Middle Eastern summer.
Yet, there is a force in this room, in this moment, who takes you at once to the snowy swathes of Switzerland, to the balmy beaches of Thailand and the airy islands of Bob Dylan’s Mozambique. It’s a wandering, itinerant few moments actually, that make up the first 10 minutes of a conversation with a man who is a hotelier but with a journey that has graced most corners of the map.
Originally from Iran, but now a Danish national, Amir Golbarg heads up the Middle East, Africa and India region for the Thailandbased Minor Hotels group. As Senior Vice President, he also oversees the Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles and Mauritius. The geographical narrative does not end there.
His Persian family has been involved in politics for generations, he says. Golbarg thought that would be his calling too, but eventually, as he adds, he was “the one who broke free”.
Loading...
“I realized early on, that ultimately, what I wanted to achieve was bigger,” says Golbarg, 41 now, who took the advice of an uncle and left for the cool climes of Switzerland to study hospitality management.
“I love dealing with people… and hospitality is in our culture, in our nature, hospitality is the spirit of serving… I was a Persian living across Europe. So being a nomad was kind of natural to me. I felt like the world is my oyster. The one thing my uncle taught me was that hospitality is the one industry where you can be, from the North Pole to the South Pole, as there’s always some kind of guest house or accommodation [serving people].”
A stint in the United States followed, and in 2008, Golbarg moved to Dubai, just before the unceremonious unraveling of the global financial crisis. The city was still – literally – on its way up with a steely resolve, and there were enough hotel projects to keep everyone busy.
“I got a taste of the glitter, the glamor and the glory,” says Golbarg fondly of a city he now calls home, despite his life on the road. When he first arrived, he was with the Jumeirah hotel group and subsequently moved on assignment to the Maldives.
In 2012, he joined Minor Hotels, part of Minor International that’s listed on the Thailand stock exchange.
“What drew me to Minor is it’s not just a hotel company, it’s an entrepreneurs’ company, we are all entrepreneurs in this space. Bill Heinecke, the founder-chairman, built it from the ground up, based in Thailand, and they are one of the biggest operators and owners of hotels, retail and F&B in Southeast Asia.”
Minor Hotels’ portfolio currently totals 558 hotels in 58 countries and includes the Anantara and Avani brands, among many others. Golbarg oversees a total of 38 properties in operation across 10 countries and six brands, in addition to driving the development of the strong pipeline of properties within the regions across multiple brands.
“We’re not your typical hotel company, he says. “We’re not just a brand that puts flags on buildings.”
Back in the Middle East, Golbarg’s journey evolved into expanding the company’s footprint, also going into Africa, focusing on India and “really broadening the context”.
Wearing multiple hats, he now also homes in on his previous experience working on asset management, investments, mergers and acquisitions, and therefore, looking at hospitality from all those perspectives.
“We run a full-360 geography of a business. And that’s the beauty of hospitality. You touch so many lives. You touch so many industries, from agriculture to trade. The whole ecosystem of hospitality is so vast, and we like to touch every one of them. That’s what makes Minor unique. We look at it not just as a hotel and filling beds, but as a business that can change lives and economies… Because if you build the right economy, that becomes sustainable to build everything else.”
Presence in the UAE
In Dubai, over the last two years, the company launched its upscale four-star Avani property, the NH Collection brand and the luxury Anantara on The Palm Jumeirah.
“Our offerings here go from the extended-stay suites all the way to luxury. We have pretty much most of the brands covered in Dubai.”
Golbarg heaps lavish praise on the pro-business, pro-progress culture of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The emirate of Dubai itself attracted over 17 million international tourists in 2023. The figures for this year are higher. “The UAE has the highest number of our brands of any destination globally,” he says.
Abu Dhabi, the country’s capital city, is also home to Minor’s Greek-inspired, 22-key, boutique, “adults’ only” Anantara Santorini retreat, which opened this year.
“What I respect about the UAE is they take everyone on board, they involve all parties. And that, for me, is a big element, which I always encourage other governments to do. Dubai Tourism has worked with us hand-in-hand on everything that they roll out. I always say, in the best sense of the word, that they use us, which they should do. Every government should use us. Of course, we have the Rolodex, we have the loyalty platforms, we have the international know-how and exposure, and we have a ton to give back, because, ultimately, we’re on the same boat. If you bring the airline, the travel, the hotels and the ministry, together, we can’t go wrong,” says Golbarg.
There are more upcoming or new projects for Minor Hotels globally. “We’re looking at a property in Morocco. At the moment, suddenly, the demand has risen. There’s a big one coming up in Jaipur in Q4 that has already been booked up for weddings… We’re also invested heavily in Thailand, it’s our mothership.”
African odyssey
Golbarg’s portfolio also takes him frequently into the African continent; the group has an office in Johannesburg, South Africa. “Our journey in sub-Saharan Africa started with purely acquisitions. We started with a joint venture in 2012, with a lodge brand called Elewana. We have 16 lodges, primarily across East Africa; in Tanzania and Kenya.”
The company also has an Avani hotel in landlocked Lesotho in southern Africa. “It’s the steadiest performer in our portfolio,” says Golbarg. “We’re the Burj Al Arab of Lesotho. What we have is doing fantastically well.”
The story in Botswana and Namibia is no different. And his own personal favorite haven in Africa? The Anantara in Medjumbe in Mozambique.
“It’s the most untapped part of the Indian Ocean; the coral reef is stunning.” Yet another location, the barrier island of Bazaruto in Mozambique – known for its prawns and picture-perfect beaches – comes with its own special tale.
“The history we have there is actually a funny story. Part of our acquisition was a small island called Santa Carolina, which was where [American singer-songwriter] Bob Dylan’s famous song, Mozambique, was [created]. The piano he used for the song was there. We brought it along to the Bazaruto property, and we have preserved it. This location was the place-to-be back in the 1960s and 1970s; the hotspot everybody would come to in Mozambique,” says Golbarg.
Coming up in South Africa, in the business district of Sandton, in Johannesburg, is a NH Collection hotel, a fully-renovated and refurbished version of the hitherto Hilton property. It will be Minor’s first hotel in Johannesburg.
“We’re looking to expand in Africa. I think for us, what is interesting now is we want to look at the key hubs, so Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi etc. But we’re seeing a major interest now in the smaller, unique Anantara offerings, those that are resort-style. There’s a demand in that space. We have our first tented camp opening early next year in a place called Kafue, which is a beautiful, unexplored area in Zambia… we’re also looking at potentially bringing the Anantara brand to Rwanda.”
Golbarg adds that he may be treading with caution in Africa’s regulatory environment but it has been “high risk, high reward”.
Statista predicts the revenue from Africa’s hospitality market by 2027 to be about $14 billion. Is it believable?
“You know, around 64% of our total income for the regions [I oversee] comes out of Africa,” Golbarg attests.
Conservation and green energy
Among other priorities, conservation is also a big area of focus for Minor. “It has been a part of our DNA. We started our journey with elephants in Thailand; we invested in a major development to support the mahouts and elephants in the Golden Triangle. And we own the assets there. And it really helped give a second life to these animals.”
Renewable energy is another big drawcard, including Minor’s investments in hydro-power and solar farms.
“Sustainability is bigger than just being plastic-free, and my commitment is that in Africa, everything we build and everything we acquire has to be from the continent. There’s nothing worse than coming to a hotel, and the shampoo and dispensers etc are from somewhere else. So, the Anantara brand, historically, we always say it’s indigenous, sustainable luxury. Even if you look at our Jaipur property in India, I was adamant that all the stones and art we use are from Rajasthan.”
And his take on the interface of new technology such as artificial intelligence?
“AI is a great tool to minimize your backoffice tasks, but it cannot replace your front-office. Because as much as everybody talks about contactless solutions and personal check-ins, guests don’t actually want that. They still need the human interface,” he says.
As trends go, Golbarg speaks about the group’s increased investments in branded residences, resort-style living and “experiential luxury”.
“People associate Africa with certain things. The goal for us is to make sure that we extend that so it does not become just a ‘bucket list’ item, but a journey of a lifetime. Because Africa shouldn’t be a ‘bucket list’, it’s not enough, there’s more than just a bucket to fill!”
Loading...