Italian job - the Marsa Malaz Kempinski

Doha will need to be ready for the thousands of football fans that will descend on the city in 2022. The World Cup is only the start of a concerted effort to move away from being a business-oriented destination and entice affluent leisure travellers to its shores, however.

The Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) announced its ambition late last year to attract seven million visitors annually by 2030, unveiling major investments in the tourism sector. Marsa Malaz Kempinski, The Pearl - Doha is a fine example of the shift that's going on in the industry. Its staff have been set ambitious targets to deliver tourists, aiming for a balance of 60% corporate and 40% leisure guests, something its owners set out to accomplish when the project began with an empty lot just two years ago.

Such lofty ambitions required an interior design team equal to the challenge, and its work across the Middle East, as well as in designing some of the most luxurious hotels in East Asia, made the Leo International Design Group seem like a perfect fit.

"The fact that it was the first five-star hotel on the Pearl really gave us the opportunity to create a new benchmark," says project director Khun Kongsak, who set up the Leo International Design Group in 1962 in Singapore.

Since then, he's worked on hotels across the world, and despite being based in Bangkok, the Leo International Design Group is firmly established in the Middle East. With an office in Abu Dhabi, the firm has taken on projects in the region for more than 30 years, from Kuwait and the UAE to Bahrain and Oman.

Local knowledge

This is not the first project Leo International has worked on for the company. Kongsak argues that the company's work on the Emirates Palace Hotel between 2000 and 2004 played a significant role in securing the commission; the firm knows how Kempinski likes to work, and how to do business with local partners.

"We've designed and completed several Kempinski hotels in the past and have been working with the group for many years," says Kongsak. "This played a big role in us being chosen for the project.

"This was instrumental in the project being so successful. Leo's long experience working in the Middle East means it is familiar with the region and used to collaborating with the regional professional teams."

This experience and understanding shapes how the company works with clients in the Gulf. Kongsak argues that doing interior design in the Middle East has taught him that, for hotel developers in the region, interiors can be intensely personal affairs, designed to reflect values and history, and that properties can serve as statements about their owners.

On his first day working on the interior design for the then-under-construction Marsa Malaz Kempinski in Doha, Qatar, Kongsak met with the developer, the Alfardan Group).

The hotel, the owner told him, was going to be quite different from any of the others in the city: it was to be the kind of place he could take his family at the weekend: a leisure destination, as much as a business one.

"We have to study and learn about what the people behind the project think and want in terms of style," he argues. "For the Marsa Malaz, they really wanted the area to combine a Venetian look with local influences, so the rooms and bathrooms were designed to be more casual.

"I really had to think about how to design it so that business travellers could bring their family. It had to be more comfortable, and more relaxed than other hotels.

"The owner had a strong vision of a unique leisure-cum-business hotel, benefitting from the proximity to the sea. When it came to design, they gave us the ideas, told us how they wanted the hotel to look, and the atmosphere they wanted."

Touch of glass

The finished hotel is remarkable. Guests are welcomed into the lobby by high-end Murano glass chandeliers, and each of its 281 luxurious rooms and suites is filled with paintings and sculptures influenced by Venetian art. They also have seven restaurants to choose from, meeting/conference facilities, a luxurious private beach and spa, as well as other luxury services, and are greeted by an 18m bronze horse statue, by Iraqi artist Ahmed Albahrani, as they approach the property.

The Venetian theme runs through the property, exemplified most obviously by the 1,072m2 Palazzo ballroom, but there is a deft balancing of European and Middle Eastern motifs. The interiors also had to fit with the hotel's luxury exterior, and it was fortunate that Venetian styles are rooted in Arabic architecture, Kongsak argues, creating harmony between local and imported aesthetics.

"The public areas are designed to be in tune with the grand format of the project," he says, "and the public areas are a contemporary interpretation of the Venetian style. Coincidentally, it blends very well with regional traditions.

"We combined the two styles in a leisure-themed hotel. It turned out to be a good way to blend local styles with the Venetian look the owners and operators liked."

Kempinski respected this attitude, he says, and, despite being involved early on in the project, allowed the ownership's vision for the project to flourish. This, combined with his firm's extensive experience working in the Middle East and with Kempinski, meant that Leo International was given a free hand to work independently on the project.

"Kempinski properties don't really have a single, corporate style," he says. "Each one is influenced by its location, so we were able to work with a lot of freedom.

#"Interior design is very subjective. Some clients like certain things, and others don't. We worked together with the owners and operators a great deal, however, paying close attention to little details like the furniture."

Unique proposition

The property is Kempinski's seventh in the Gulf region and its second in Doha (two more are set to open this year), and the company was chosen by the owners, according to Kongsak, for its world renown and enviable reputation for delivering high-end luxury projects.

The hotel's location on the Pearl (which is owned by the same group that developed the Marsa Malaz) makes it particularly important, as it will serve as a landmark that could bring tourists to the man-made island.

"On the first day, the owners told me that they hired Kempinski because they wanted something elegant, unique and with a good image," he says. "They didn't want it to be like a big chain, like Hilton, or Marriott."

The Marsa Malaz opened officially on 25 January, after a soft opening a few weeks previously that enabled the site's branded restaurants to settle in. While Kongsak was confident that the hotel would do well, he has been astonished by the praise the property and its interiors received, and how quickly it has established itself as one of the most well-known properties in Doha.

"The operator says it's the best hotel in the city," he says, "because it's such a unique place."