Speaking to TTG Luxury at the launch of Virgin Limited Edition’s new Son Bunyola Hotel in Majorca, Virgin Hotels chief executive James Bermingham said Virgin Limited Edition and Virgin Hotels would expand in Europe and North America, including Canada and Mexico. He said: “We’re laser-focused on key gateway cities and resort destinations within those two strategic markets. We’re also in the very early stages of planning a South American strategy, because luxury travellers love that part of the world.”
Former Virgin Hotels chief executive Bermingham took the helm of the newly created Virgin Hotels Collection parent brand in January. He soon started scoping potential business development opportunities for new properties with the Virgin Limited Edition team, and has already identified 27 “potential opportunities”. The majority are existing buildings with the potential to be turned into hotels, and destinations include Greece, Italy, Portugal and Ireland.
He explained: “When you think about hotel owners of ultra-luxury hotels today, they’re creating trophy assets. They’re creating highly experiential hotels and they’re doing that in a very environmentally sensitive way. It’s one of the new trends, but is what Richard [Branson] has been doing for ever.”
He said while Virgin Limited Edition has until now focused on resort experiences, such as safaris at Ulusaba, Richard Branson’s private game reserve in South Africa, he hopes to “translate that into an urban experience”.
Bermingham said most of the potential projects were at a very early stage of discussions, and added: “The number of those opportunities is greater than I thought it would be. What’s most important is that it’s careful growth. So we want to be in the right market, with the right partners [investors], who will share the same vision and be primarily longer-term holders of assets. And then it’s the location within that market, and we’ve got to make sure we get that right every time.”
Virgin Limited Edition unveiled the new 26-key Son Bunyola Hotel in Majorca last week. Later this year work will start to convert a separate building on the 1,300-acre estate into a collection of 12 luxury suites. “It’s a great way of adding additional inventory, but not increasing the density, as there will still only be 26 rooms and suites in the hotel,” Bermingham added.
The brand will also expand the 28-key Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco in early 2024, opening six riads, aimed at the family market.
Bermingham said the early days of Virgin Hotels Collection were “going super well”. He continued: “If you focus on what the two companies bring together, which is two incredible brands, with incredible geographic diversity, they could not be more complementary. And we have the ability to grow both on the Virgin Limited Edition side and the Virgin Hotels side, and learn along the way, from each other.”
