# Middle East Hotels Shift Towards Franchising Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/morning-drive-7382993/middle-east-hotels-shift-towards-franchising Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/morning-drive-7382993/middle-east-hotels-shift-towards-franchising.md Podcast: [Morning Drive](https://stenobird.com/podcast/morning-drive-7382993) Published: 2026-09-14T07:11:21+00:00 Episode link: https://www.mirabusiness.fm/shows/morning-drive Audio file: https://media.podeo.co/episodes/MTMzMDgy/audio.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/morning-drive-7382993/episodes/middle-east-hotels-shift-towards-franchising Duration seconds: 1121 ## Resource The Middle East’s hotel sector could be entering a major shift. Franchising is gaining ground as hotel owners look for more control and lower costs, while hotel groups seek faster, capital-light expansion. With Arabian Travel Market putting the spotlight on the region’s next phase of tourism growth, we look at whether franchising could reshape how hotels are developed across the Middle East.Joining Tim Elliott is Ron Pohl; President of International Operations, BWH Hotels & President of WorldHotels, to discuss where the hotel market is heading and what this shift means for owners and developers. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/morning-drive-7382993/episodes/middle-east-hotels-shift-towards-franchising/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/morning-drive-7382993/middle-east-hotels-shift-towards-franchising.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.