AI is collapsing the old way of booking travel — and one of the world's biggest hotel groups is rebuilding itself around that. Amir Golbarg, COO of Minor Hotels Middle East & Africa, sat down with Breaking Travel News to explain how the group, which runs more than 640 hotels across 67 countries, is planning its next phase of growth in the region.
His headline prediction: guests increasingly discover and book trips through AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini rather than traditional search and travel agents. That's pushing Minor to connect its data across brands including Anantara, NH Collection, Avani and Tivoli — working with Google Cloud, Salesforce and Oracle — so that whichever brand you find first, it recognises you. For travellers, the upshot is hotels competing harder on the experience itself, not just a fancy room.
Where does Golbarg see the action? Not the headline mega-projects, but places with a distinct identity. He flags Abha and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Oman's emerging coastal spots such as Bandar Al Khairan, Sharjah (where Minor plans seven nature- and heritage-led properties), Egypt's North Coast and Red Sea, plus Türkiye and Morocco. Further afield in Africa, the group is betting on experiential and conservation-led travel, with an Anantara Tented Camp in Zambia's Kafue National Park area and a property on Tanzania's Pemba Island in the pipeline, alongside Anantara Somabay in Egypt and Anantara Çeşme in Türkiye.
On spending habits, Golbarg's view is blunt: people will pay for privacy, authenticity, space, wellness, standout food and access to experiences they can't get elsewhere — but not for a generic luxury room. The hotel, in his framing, is becoming part of the reason to travel rather than just where you sleep.
The group's biggest headache isn't demand, it's people. Hotels can be built fast; experienced teams take years to train, especially in fast-growing markets like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Türkiye. Minor's answer is internal mobility — staff moving between city NH Collection properties and Anantara resorts — plus developing local talent pipelines. It's a reminder for job-seekers that hospitality in the region is being pitched as a career, not a stopgap.
Why should a traveller care? Because the destinations Golbarg names are the ones getting serious hotel investment over the next few years. If you want Saudi Arabia beyond Riyadh, or a safari with conservation credentials in Zambia, the accommodation options are about to multiply — and booking through AI tools may well get you there first. Watch FHS World, the industry forum Golbarg is headed to, where he wants leaders to debate how to make the Middle East's extraordinary growth genuinely sustainable.
This story is based on a Q&A first published by Breaking Travel News.
