hotelier middle east - feb 2010

YOUR REPUTATIONDON’T RISKWITH CHEAP DECISIONS...

YOUR REPUTATIONDON’T RISKWITH CHEAP DECISIONS...

TENDERING THEWRONGCOULD DAMAGE MORE THAN THE CONTENTS

OF THE REFRIGERATOR!

TENDERING THEWRONGCOULD DAMAGE MORE THAN THE CONTENTS

OF THE REFRIGERATOR!

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BRINGING F&B TO LIFEGive guests more bang for their buck with a taste of restaurant theatre

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Hotelier Middle East • February 2010www.hoteliermiddleeast.com

05 NEWSOver-priced Dubai missing out to rival destinations; Jumeirah guest house forced to close; FRHI on mas-sive recruitment drive for Makkah.

12 NEW ANALYSISAn update on The Palm Jumeirah, as Hotelier questions who is to blame for hotel delays.

17 COMMENTService comes under fi re yet again; while Guy Wilkinson searches for an authentic experience of the Middle East.

21 TOUGH TALKMike Scully tackles the green issue from the owner’s point of view.

24 EXCLUSIVE: CEO INTERVIEWDusit International CEO Chanin Donavanik reveals his plans for gradual but steady growth.

27 GM INTERVIEWFairmont Bab Al Bahr GM Michael Kaile predicts a positive future.

30 REVENUE MANAGEMENT A hotelier and consultant join forces to solve the challenges faced by revenue managers.

37 ROUNDTABLE: ENGINEERSHotel engineers — otherwise known as green champions — reveal their energy-saving achievements.

43 COVER STORY: BRINGING F&B TO LIFETo kick off our Gulfood preview, Hotelier looks at one of the hottest new themes in the F&B world — restaurant theatre.

49 GULFOOD Q&A Gulfood project manager Goli Vossough discusses why demand for the show has grown and how DICEC has met that interest with exciting new features.

54 GULFOOD OVERVIEWEverything you need to know about Gulfood, including the new awards, inaugural conference and Ingredi-ents Middle East.

57 GULFOOD GALOREShowcasing some of the newest products to keep your eye out for.

64 BEST PRACTICE: MARKETING Bring your hotel into the 21st century by ensuring your marketing teams are up to date.

69 COUNTRY UPDATE: OMAN A review of upcoming properties, hotel performance and tourism trends in Oman.

75 SUPPLIER FOCUS Supplier news, expert opinion on laundry trends and Lamb Weston company profi le.

80 FITTED OUT An exclusive look at The Monarch Suite: the biggest and ‘best’ in the Middle East.

84 PRODUCTS: UNIFORMSDesign tips for hotel wardrobes.

88 PRODUCT GUIDE Laundry kit and new products.

93 TECH TALKNews from Shangri-La Hotels & Re-sorts and Beach Rotana, and tips on how to choose your booking engine.

96 TECH TALK: CRMGetting up close and personal with the latest developments in CRM technology for hotels.

103 HOTELIER INVESTORNews from Layia Hospitality, JAL Hotels and Kingdom Hotel Invest-ments, plus a view from London.

108 RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING The new recruit and appointments.

111 LEISURE MANAGER News, opinion and how to maximise revenue from spa retail.

118 CALENDAR Diary of upcoming industry events.

120 HOTELIER CONFIDENTIAL Insights from the news desk.

37February 2010 Volume 9, Issue 2

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February 2010February 2010

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February 2010 • Hotelier Middle East www.hoteliermiddleeast.com

Most-read stories on hoteliermiddleeast.com

1. Woman arrested following rape in hotel claim 2. Video: Burj Khalifa fi reworks 3. Top 10 new hotels 4. Tallest skyscraper in the world renamed5. Burj smashes lift records

A hotel chain is employing human bed warm-ers in London, UK to help guests get a good night’s sleep.

The walking electric blankets are dressed in special all-in-one sleeper suits and are sent to warm the beds of guests staying at the Holiday Inn before they get under the covers, according to a report by the Press Association.

Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edin-burgh Sleep Centre, said the idea could help people get off to sleep.

He said: “There’s plenty of scientifi c evi-dence to show that sleep starts at the begin-ning of the night when body temperature starts to drop. The decline occurs partly

TOP GLOBAL SOURCE MARKETS— JANUARY1. US2. UK3. INDIA4. FRANCE5. CANADA

TOP REGIONAL SOURCE MARKETS— JANUARY1. SAUDI ARABIA2. QATAR3. BAHRAIN4. KUWAIT5. OMAN

The dramatic opening of the Burj Khalifa captured three of the top spots on HME.com in January.

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because the blood vessels of the hands, face and feet open up and release heat.

“A warm bed — approximately 20 to 24ºC — is a good way to start this process whereas a cold bed would inhibit sleep. Holiday Inn’s new bed warmers service should help people achieve a good night’s sleep especially as it’s taking much longer for them to warm up when they come in from the snow.”

Holiday Inn spokeswoman Jane Bednall said the idea was “like having a giant hot water bottle in your bed”.

The fi ve minute free bed warming sessions were also being tried out in Manchester in the north of England.

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Fairmont Raffl es Hotels Interna-tional (FRHI) is seeking to recruit 2600 employees of Muslim faith over the next 12 months in order to staff its three properties being developed as part of the Abraj Al Bait Complex in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

The company is currently develop-ing Makkah Clock Royal Tower, A Fairmont Hotel, Raffl es Palace Mak-kah and Swissôtel Makkah.

On a recent visit to Dubai, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts president Tom Storey told Hotelier Middle East that “if you think about the complexity of pulling this off it’s unbelievable”.

Storey explained: “We’ve spent the past two days with about 50 people from around the world working on

Fairmont president says complexity of development puts a “premium on the quality of the people”

FRHI seeks 2600 employees for mammoth Makkah project

STORY OF THE MONTH

TRENDS

Hoteliers confi dent of recovery in luxury market

Experts from the region’s top-end hotels said they are confi dent the lux-ury travel market will bounce back towards the end of the year.

They said sales from this sector — from both a leisure and business per-spective — have been very sluggish over the past 12 months but promo-tions and value-for-money options are enticing them back.

“The luxury segment almost dis-appeared in the last 12 months,” said InterContinental Hotels Group Dubai Festival City director of sales and marketing Christian Pertl. “Top management from multi-nationals

cannot afford to be seen within luxu-rious environments anymore and there has been a lot of pressure on hotels to lower rates, but it’s all about [offering] smart deals.”

He said IHG DFC expected 2010 to “remain a challenge”, although the property did see “positive signs of recovery”, especially from the GCC and Indian markets.

Shangri-La Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri Abu Dhabi GM Adrian Rudin said: “Generally I think the premium trav-eller will still travel; there is a concern about spending, but for those sea-soned travellers, this [fear] is less so”.

He predicted that there would be a pick up in Middle East business in Q3 and that the international luxury

travel market would “bounce back” by the end of the year.

Both Rudin and Pertl were speak-ing to Hotelier Middle East after attending the International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) in Cannes in December — a show they claimed was very effective for securing busi-ness. The pair also revealed identical goals at ILTM — specifi cally to gain more business from the European and Russian markets.

Lore Koenig, DOSM at The Chedi, Muscat, attended ILTM for the fourth time and said the mood of luxury buyers was “very positive”.

Middle East buyer Nick Sheppard, manager, non-air product at Dnata, said he had a “mixed response” from

Storey: the complexity of the Makkah project is

“unbelievable” and so relies on the very best people.

Christian Pertl: the luxury segment almost vanished in 2009, but there are signs of recovery in 2010.

the hoteliers with whom he met at the show. “Some hotels were eager to offer very keen pricing, in particu-lar for Q1 and Q2, while others were indicating relatively high occupan-cies at the beginning of the year and were more interested in targeting periods later in the year,” he said.

our opening plan for the Makkah property and all the details of that from across the different disciplines.

“Think about how hard this is; we’re going to be opening a multi-brand integrated hotel, one of the largest in the world in a place that only Muslims can go to, and we have to source about 2600 employees over the course of the next 12 months — they all have to be Muslim, they all have to understand hospitality, they have to fi t our culture and we have to do it without ever going to the site”.

To put the project into perspective, Storey claimed the only comparable projects underway worldwide were gaming developments.

“The only projects of this mag-nitude that are going on around the world right now are gaming projects and all those gaming projects have

a totally different agenda; they have all been driven by gaming and that’s their fundamental underpinning – here what we have is a religious icon. They couldn’t be more diametrically opposed,” said Storey.

“If you think about for us the chal-lenge and the fun of it all, you’re opening the Savoy in London, you’re opening Makkah and then we’re also opening the Peace Hotel in Shanghai, which is arguably the single most famous hotel in all of Asia.

“So I sit there and look at that and to be able to pull that off, being as small as we are, really has to put a premium on the quality of the people and that’s what I like — it’s a bit of a David and Goliath,” said Storey.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has 30,000 employees and Storey cites “US $4 billion of hotel real estate”.

THE REGION• Signings • Openings • Best practices • Strategy • Branding • Legislation • Events


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One of the UK’s biggest tour opera-tors has warned Dubai hoteliers that unless they become more fl exible with their pricing strategies, they will con-tinue to lose out to more accommodat-ing destinations.

“My message to hoteliers is that we really want to focus on Dubai, but reduce rates more, make your F&B cheaper and offer all-inclusive pack-ages if you want to sustain and grow volumes from the UK market,” said Glenn McCool, regional product and contracts manager at Tui’s specialist division, which includes brands such as Hayes & Jarvis, Thomson Tailor-made and Travelmood.

“All-inclusive always sells well, but even more so right now due to the economic situation — in fact 80% of all bookings for hotels offering this option, such as those in Mauritius and the Maldives, are for all-inclusive packages,” he said.

McCool also cited success stories closer to home with hotels in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah securing long-

stay business by offering all-inclusive deals to holidaymakers.

“In contrast, Dubai is a stopover or short-break market,” he said, nam-ing the lack of all-inclusive deals, high room rates and expensive F&B as the main culprits.

He noted that Dubai room rates had come down by around 25%-35% com-pared to peak 2008 prices, but accused Dubai hoteliers of being infl exible when it came to pricing structures.

“A market like Egypt, for example, is much more reactive to market demands,” he said.

As a result, Egypt was stealing mar-ket share from Dubai in the winter and summer sun stakes, as was New York as a weekend break option, he added.

McCool said that in the long term, for Dubai to remain competitive and to fi ll the number of rooms coming online, prices needed to come down a further 50-60%.

“I can see Dubai having to become a charter market in order to get the vol-umes it needs,” he noted.

McCool’s comments echo the sen-timents of Virgin Atlantic sales and marketing director Paul Dickinson

who in a recent interview with Hote-lier’s sister publication, Arabian Travel News, said more needed to be done to persuade British consumers that Dubai offered value for money.

He revealed that one of Virgin Holi-days’ best performing properties in the UAE was the Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort & Spa, because it offered all-inclusive packages. “The question is, can other hotels in Dubai work on this

Hoteliers told to lower prices and offer all-inclusive packages to woo back British travellers

Overpriced Dubai missing out to rival destinations

PRICING

Dubai hotels invest in major expansionsThe Ritz-Carlton Dubai has announced a major expansion project that will see its current room offering nearly double over a two-year period.

Construction on the project, which has been conceived by Dubai-based architectural fi rm Rice Perry Ellis, will commence this April and is due for completion in 2012.

Among the planned changes are new restaurant concepts, increased meeting and function space, a grand

ballroom and enhanced private dining facilities. In addition, 163 extra gues-trooms will be housed in a new wing, meaning the hotel will remain open for the duration of the project, and they will include two Royal Suites with an 180-degree panoramic view of the Arabian Gulf.

All guest rooms will be upgraded with technological features such as iPod docking stations, fl at screen tele-visions and DVD players in response to increased customer demand.

The Ritz-Carlton Dubai general manger Andrew Nasskau said: “This major project is part of our goal to meet our guests’ requirements in the coming years. Since the resort’s open-ing 11 years ago, our numbers of guests have increased annually, and with the development of The Walk and Dubai

The Hilton RAK resort is one of Virgin Holidays’ best performing hotels in the UAE thanks to its all-inclusive packages.

Le Baie restaurant will receive a new look as part of

the major Ritz-Carlton Dubai expansion programme.

all-inclusive basis,” he pointed out.McCool said the only hope on the

horizon was that Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts planned to offer an all-inclu-sive concept at the group’s forthcom-ing Royal Amwaj property on Palm Jumeirah (see www.hoteliermiddlee-ast.com), due to open in Q3.

“If this premium all-inclusive pack-age goes ahead, it will sell exceedingly well,” he concluded.

Marina, we are predicting even higher visitors’ interest in The Ritz-Carlton at the completion of this expansion”.

Meanwhile, the owners of the Ara-bian Courtyard Hotel & Spa in Dubai have pledged an AED 4 million (US $1.1 million) rejuvenation programme to be spent on product upgrades to maintain market position.

Arabian Courtyard Hotel & Spa general manager and Hospital-ity Division of Planet Group chief executive offi cer Habib Khan said: “Our commitment to customer care, employee development, community involvement and investment in prod-uct has been the key to our success over the years”.

The investment will include LCD TV screens in all rooms, an IPTV sys-tem and an additional restaurant.

442Among the key markets in the region, Dubai reported the largest amount of rooms in the total active pipeline with 29,727 rooms.

The Dubai market also ended the month with the largest amount of rooms in the ‘In Construction’ phase with 15,291 rooms. Abu Dhabi followed with 13,701 rooms in the total active pipeline and 6,939 rooms in the ‘In Construction’ phase.

Hotels in the Middle East and Africa according to the December 2009 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report

released at the end of January.


NEWS

7

Dubai hotels call for transparency on green issues

Dubai hoteliers have called on the government to create green standards and guidelines that are both legally binding and transparent.

They say initiatives such as the Dubai Green Tourism Award pro-gramme, the winners of which are expected to be announced on Febru-ary 25, are a step in the right direction,

yet Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and Dubai Municipality needed to join forces to put together green speci-fi cations that all hotels — both old and new — must adhere to, with each being forced to declare their green cre-dentials publicly.

Emirates Hotels & Resorts senior vice president Tony Williams, who has been forcing the ‘green’ agenda in Dubai for the last 13 years, said green

STANDARDS

La Maison d’Hôtes’ Claude Berquier and Julie Renaudie.

Bosses call for government measures to formalise green expectations

Jumeirah guest house forced to closeA guest house located close to the Burj Al Arab has closed due to the “Dubai Municipality refusing to authorise the renewal of running a guest house in the residential area of Jumeriah”.

In a statement sent to Hotelier Middle East, PR representatives of La Maison d’Hôtes said that the hotel had closed its doors as of January 11.

However, when Hotelier Middle East contacted the PR company, we were told the owners — Julie Renaudie and Claude Berquier — were not able to comment any further.

A spokesperson from the DTCM could not comment on the case spe-cifi cally but said the decision to give licences was based on regulations set by the Dubai Municipality.

He explained: “We give licences and classifi cation based on planning of the area, so based on the municipality plans. We co-ordinate with the munic-ipality, who provide us with build-ing usage. Some of them are working without a legal licence and when we discover this we will stop them.

“If a hotel or guesthouse is operat-ing in a residential area we can’t give approval. They [the municipality] will say this area is residential, this area is commercial and this area is for hotels all based on zoning and planning,” continued the spokesperson.

“They [the owner of the property] have to provide the DTCM with a cer-tifi cate from the municipality showing they have permission and plus they have to fulfi ll the DTCM’s criteria.

“The requirements for the DTCM are laid out in the classifi cation man-ual that can be found on the DTCM’s website,” he added.

standards must be created and the results of the Dubai Green Tourism Awards in terms of why the winners won and details of their green initia-tives must be published.

“The awards are a good idea as long as they are assessed properly and are transparent,” he said. “If not, such ini-tiatives like that will be seen as another ‘green wash’.”

Williams said the fi rm’s Dubai eco-resort Al Maha did not enter the awards programme, “because com-pared to most other hotels in Dubai, we are so far ahead [in terms of sus-tainability] that it would be a case of us having to win it”.

He stressed that the reputation of Dubai hotels was “shocking” when it came to green issues and hoped initia-tives such as the awards would force hoteliers to change their ways.

Arabian Park’s Mark Lee: Government driven green

initiatives should be set through realistic legislation.

Mark Lee, GM at Arabian Park Hotel, a property that did enter the awards programme, said it proved a useful exercise in terms of bench-marking the hotel against industry standards, but added that “realistic legislation” was sought, “even if this means a gradual stepped change” to get owners/hoteliers’ buy-in.

Introductory workshops were conducted for the hospitality industry to explain the green tourism concepts and the awards programme in 2009.

About 200 hotels were eligible to com-pete for the programme but 79 applica-tions were actually submitted.

From the 79 applicants, 33 hotels were

visited by the Green Awards panel for fur-ther evaluation.

A six-member judging panel evaluated submissions and shortlisted 18 hotels from which the winners were then selected.

InterContinental Dubai Festival City is the offi cial hotel sponsor for the awards and entered a submission to the programme.

ABOUT THE DUBAI GREEN AWARDS


NEW

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New kids on the blockHotelier Middle East provides the low-down on hotel announcements and new openings

THE NILE HOTEL CLOSED FOR EXTENSIVE RENOVATION WORK

PROPERTY: Coral Khartoum and Coral Port Sudan LOCATION: Khartoum and Port Sudan, SudanOPERATOR: Coral Hotels and ResortsOWNER: Sudanese Kuwaiti Hotels Co. LtdKEYS: Khartoum – 285 rooms Port Sudan – 114 rooms STATUS: Already operational

PROPERTY: Banyan Tree Al Wadi Resort LOCATION: Ras Al Khaimah, UAEOPERATOR: Banyan Tree Holdings OWNER: Rakeen Development PJSCKEYS: 101 villas STATUS: Soft opened on January 1, 2010OUTLETS: FourFACILITIES: Private pools, treatment pavilions, rainforest hydrother-mal circuit with a hammam and vitality pool, banquet hall, beach, golf course, adventure activities

InterContinental Hotels Group has announced the results of its Hotel Stars Awards designed to recognise excellence in performance in its employees across hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa. In the Middle East, Carlos Mal-liaroudakis of Holiday Inn Kuwait Downtown

won both the ‘general manager of the year’ award and the ‘quality excellence award’ for the Holiday Inn brand. Mean-while, the Crowne Plaza Jeddah won ‘hotel of the year’ and ‘the torch bearer award’ following a renovation last year.

The newly-opened Rose Rayhaan by Rotana, the UAE fl agship for Rotana’s alcohol-free brand Rayhaan Hotels & Resorts, has had its status as world’s tallest hotel offi cially certi-fi ed by Guinness World Records. Rotana

senior vice president UAE operations Omer Z. Kaddouri said “We are indeed very proud to be managing this landmark property, which will increase Rotana’s stronghold further in Dubai and across the region”.

MIDDLE EAST WINNERS FOR IHG HOTEL STARS AWARDS

ROSE RAYHAAN OFFICIALLY WORLD’S TALLEST HOTEL Ttbsfi

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Holiday Inn Kuwait Downtown GM Carlos Malliaroudakis.

The Nile Hotel, Cairo, which fi rst opened under the Hilton brand in 1958, closed its doors in January ahead of a 30-month renova-tion project. The hotel, which is owned by Misr Hotels, a subsid-iary of The Holding Company for Tourism, Hotels and Cinema, will reopen in 2012 as The Nile Ritz-Carlton, Cairo.

The proposed transformation, which has been designed by WZMH Architects/Frank Nichol-son Inc, will include 327 rooms, 52 suites and two 432m² royal suites. There will be four spe-cialty restaurants, two lounges and a bar, as well as a Grand Ballroom capable of holding events for up to 4000 guests.

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Armani Hotel Dubai, the joint venture between Gior-gio Armani S.p.A and Emaar Properties PJSC, has announced that it will open on March 18, 2010. Posi-tioned in the recently opened world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, Armani Hotel Dubai is to be the fi rst in a global initiative featuring exclusive properties designed by Giorgio Armani.

ARMANI HOTEL DUBAI TO OPEN IN MARCH

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Are we being ‘Palmed’ off?Gemma Greenwood asked hotel operators and developers to cite the reasons for delays to hotel projects on The Palm Jumeirah and received nothing but positive — and evasive — responses

ANALYSIS

Controversy surrounding The Palm Jumeirah has been rife since its inception, with questions as to its viability

asked almost on a daily basis. Would this man-made island affect the tidal fl ows around the Gulf? Would it sink? Was the vulgar display of wealth and hedonism shown at the launch of Atlantis, The Palm, appro-priate during the onset of the worst recession in decades? And most re-cently, of course, would Nakheel, the brainchild behind this offshore development — and many others in Dubai — go out of business?

Many of these questions remain unanswered, either because no one knows or no one dares to say and it’s much the same concerning the world of hospitality on The Palm Jumeirah.

There are around 30 hotels planned for The Palm Jumeirah and only one — the aforementioned Atlantis, The Palm — is currently open.

And, despite the many moans and groans about its grotesque aesthetics and the over-the-top opening cer-emony, one thing that can be said for this pink behemoth is that it opened

AS FAR AS WE ARE CONCERNED, THERE HAVE BEEN NO PROBLEMS WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PALM

exactly when Sol Kerzner promised it would.

This cannot be said for the remain-ing 29 properties scheduled for The Palm, all of which have been delayed, even if their owners and operators swear blindly that the postponement was actually planned.

WHO OR WHAT IS TO BLAME?On a macro scale, it was mooted that Nakheel couldn’t get its act together, however, construction of the actual palm structure itself does seem to be

going ahead as scheduled and most hotel owners/operators who have interests on The Palm seem to have nothing but praise for the developer.

Mike Scully, the managing director of hospitality at Seven Tides, investor in two new Mövenpick properties on The Palm, said Nakheel had done a “fantastic job” considering this was an “ambitious project” and a “brand new concept”.

“They have developed well over 80% of the island itself and that is a phenomenal feat whatever the eco-nomic conditions, let alone during one of the biggest economic crises known to man,” he told Hotelier.

“As far as we are concerned, there have been no problems with the con-


NEWS

13

struction of The Palm. Individual developers might have had problems, but I can’t speak for them.”

He denied that the opening of the Royal Amwaj Resort & Spa — the fi rst property in Dubai to have over-water villas — and the Oceana Hotel & Spa were actually delayed, although operator Mövenpick did originally put out a 2008 opening date on the hotels.

Scully said Seven Tides and Möv-enpick had been busy “improving product and design” and that the properties would open in Q3 this year with exact dates expected to be announced this month.

He also argued that most Dubai hotel projects had been delayed, regardless of where they were located, due to a variety of factors, ranging from funding issues to fl uc-tuations in the availability and price of raw materials.

Mövenpick’s business develop-ment director, Guy Epsom, chipped in that it wasn’t uncommon for hotel projects to overshoot their estimated opening date.

“It is realistic to say that the uncer-tain business cycle of the past months has introduced other criteria and exaggerated the traditional project management issues,” he said.

“This reality has infl uenced the timelines associated with many new projects and this looks unlikely to change in 2010, however, all of our [four Dubai] projects are all set to open this year.”

IFA Hotels & Resorts, which has investments in several projects on The Palm Jumeirah, conceded that the construction of most of these had been delayed, but put a positive spin on the situation.

“The delay in opening is actually advantageous,” said vice president development Patrick Smith. “The hotels will open in a much stronger market and at a time when less inven-tory is coming online.”

IFA owns The Palm Residences (Fairmont managed), which are already open and operational; the Fairmont Residences, Palm Jumei-rah, which were scheduled to open in Q4 2009 and will open in Q1, 2010

Nakheel Properties has made a commit-ment to open fi ve new hotels on The Palm Jumeirah by 2011. Despite the delays, Nakheel has said that

none of the 30 hotel projects set to open on Palm Jumeirah have been cancelled.

Mövenpick’s two Palm properties — Oceana Hotel & Spa and The Royal Amwaj Resort & Spa — will open in Q3, 2010.

One&Only The Palm, will open on October 10, 2010.

Kempinski’s Emerald Palace will open in mid-2011. It is still unknown if the Trump Tower proj-

ect, which was set to be one of Dubai’s new icons, will actually go ahead.

Jumeirah Al Fattan Palm Resort will open this year as planned. The Fairmont Palm Jumeirah hotel will open

in 2011 and Fairmont Kingdom of Sheba will open in 2012.

Rixos is remaining tight-lipped about its Ottoman Palace project and did not respond to Hotelier’s questions.

Sofi tel told Hotelier it had no information to give on its Palm Jumeirah hotel project.

Atlantis did not respond to Hotelier’senquiry about extensions to the property.

THE PALM JUMEIRAH – WHAT WE KNOW

Jumeirah Al Fattan will open this year as planned.


NEW

S14

The Fairmont Palm Jumeirah has been delayed “ due to a redesign” but is now scheduled to open in 2011.

OUR FINANCIAL PLANS SHOW IT IS BENEFICIAL TO OPEN THE HOTEL 12-16 MONTHS AFTER THE OPENING OF THE RESIDENCES

Kempinski’s Emerald Palace will open in 2011.

due to “minor delays”; The Fairmont Palm Jumeirah, which was sched-uled for 2009 but will open in 2011 with delays due to a redesign, “which included the introduction of pent-houses to the top fl oors of the hotel”; and the Kingdom of Sheba — phase one of which comprises the Balqis Residences and Fairmont Heritage Place, Kingdom of Sheba, which are scheduled to open in 2010 and are “progressing well”.

“The completion date for the sec-ond phase will be determined once the most recent designs have been fi nalised,” added Smith.

He stressed that Nakheel had been a “valuable partner” to IFA Hotels & Resorts during the development.

Hotel operator, Kempinski Hotels and Resorts, had very similar views to IFA and Seven Tides when it came to reasons for delays to properties on The Palm Jumeirah and the support-iveness of Nakheel.

Both Ulrich Eckhardt, the presi-dent for Middle East and Africa at Kempinski, and Seven Tides’ Mike Scully emphasised how the developer had created a top tourist destination (The Palm) that added 76 kilometres of much-needed coastline to Dubai.

With reference to Kempinski’s Palm Jumeirah ventures — the Kem-pinski Residences and the Emerald Palace — Eckhardt argued that no fi nal opening date had ever been set for the latter but confi rmed that the hotel “carcass” would be complete this month with interior fi t out due for

March/April “with a view to opening in mid-2011”.

“Today we have four thousand people working on the adjoining plot, which houses the Kempinski Residences and once that is complete, resources will be moved to the hotel,” said Eckhardt.

“Our fi nancial plans show it is more benefi cial to open the hotel 12-16 months after the opening of the residences,” he added.

Nakheel itself has remained tight-lipped about forthcoming hotel proj-ects on The Palm Jumeirah and did not respond to questions regarding the subject that were posed by Hote-lier Middle East.

The most recent press reported that Nakheel Properties had stated it was committed to opening at least fi ve hotels on the Palm Jumeirah by 2011, but had “nothing new to say about Trump Tower”, which was set to rival Atlantis for iconic Palm Jumeirah status.

The comments regarding the mega tower were made in response to a story by Hotelier’s sister publication, Construction Week, in which Donald Trump Jr, heir to the Trump Empire and a partner on the project, said that the construction of the tower was now in the hands of Nakheel.

“I am hoping we can restart work on the project within the next two years but it all depends on the market situation,” said Trump Jr.

“At the end of the day, the ball is in Nakheel’s court.” HMEHME

Fairmont Kingdom of Sheba: a resort with 550 rooms and suites, conference centre, Willow Stream Spa, beach and pools, kids club, Fairmont Heritage vacation ownership units and on-site souk with shopping and dining facilities.

Fairmont Palm Jumeirah and the Fairmont Residences, Palm Jumeirah: will comprise a 377-room luxury resort with 588 vaca-tion ownership residences. The hotel will include 36,500ft² of meeting space, beach restaurant and a private beach club, a pool complex and children’s activity centre and a Willow Stream Spa.

Jumeirah Al Fattan Palm Resort: located at the northern tip of The Palm’s crescent and featuring 211 rooms, six restaurants and lounges, a signature Talise spa, extensive sports and leisure facilities, an exclusive

beach club with more than 200 metres of private beach and conference and ban-queting facilities.

One&Only The Palm, Dubai: comprising the three-level Manor house with 30 rooms and fi ve suites; six low-rise mansions with 36 rooms and 22 suites, many with private pools, as well as four private beach villas. Highlights include a 1200m² One&Only Spa and a private marina for 12-15 yachts.

Ottoman Palace by Rixos: will boast 410 rooms, suites and villas alongside 19 din-ing outlets and a spa featuring the world’s largest Turkish Bath.

The Royal Amwaj Resort & Spa: featuring 293 rooms and villas including 18 over-water villas, 2km of temperature-controlled natu-ral swimming lagoons, a spa with 25 treat-ment rooms and six F&B outlets.

A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

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Choose the Pur Eco label to meet your cleaning and hygieneneeds as well as those of the environment without compromisingon performance.

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Come and see us at the Gulfood 2010 Exhibition, Stand S 1-C18

COMM

ENT17


This editor’s letter has been penned from an unusual location this month, where exactly I am not even sure.

On board the Brilliance of the Seas cruise ship for Royal Caribbean International’s maiden Middle East voyage, I believe this was written somewhere between Fujairah and Abu Dhabi in the Gulf of Oman.

The cruise was a seven-night tour, starting in Dubai and stopping for a day each in Muscat, Fujairah, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain before returning to Dubai for an overnight stay.

While I would happily have swapped my cabin — sorry, state-room — for any basic hotel room and my cubicle — sorry, bathroom — for a shower I could lift my arms up in, I dis-covered that accommodation aside, this cruise ship quite easily trumps many of the hotels I have stayed in.

And I have been lucky enough to experience some of the region’s very best hotels, so the bar is set very high.

Food and beverage was one of the areas that really stood out. Assuming you had an outlet big enough, could your F&B team serve 1000 people twice over in one evening? And could it do this providing hot food at the same time for every person on tables of 10, while also managing multiple drink requests and adding the occa-sional skit and song to keep guests entertained? I didn’t think so.

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All aboard for training!

Louise Oakley, [email protected]

“There is nothing more avoidable than an empty Dubai fi sh restaurant on a Sunday night. This is where I, unfortunately, found myself a couple of weeks ago, picking my way through a quartet of “fresh” shrimp who looked like they had committed group sui-cide before the chef could get to them. The herb crusted sea bass that followed smelt like burnt fennel and cat breath. I didn’t even bother to look for the waiter. He was far too busy waiting for his contract to end.“Dan Clayton, general manager, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, The Monarch Dubai

I recently paid a visit to a casual-dining out-let in a major Dubai shopping mall — a well-

known brand that prides itself on quick, cheerful service. However, at this branch it seemed the staff had not even been trained; servers were standing around chatting, com-pletely ignoring myself and the other tables. After eventually placing an order at the coun-ter, I got my food (mediocre) but was unable to catch anyone’s attention to order another beverage or even when the time came to pay the bill! Needless to say, this experience has put me off the whole brand. Lucy Taylor, editor, Caterer Middle East

My worst experience was at a bar/restau-rant in Doha, where quite a lot of things went wrong. Having been directed to the bar, there

were no guests there and the bar staff looked very disappointed to see my friend and I enter. I soon realised that the bartender was hav-ing a telephone argument with his manager on the ground fl oor of the bar, as it was the end of his shift so he didn’t want to serve us. Al-though the bar was still open we felt very un-welcomed and they made sure we knew that we were causing them discomfort. When we asked for the menu, they took forever to bring it and mentioned that a lot of the items were not available. We left the restaurant without eating. They offered to take care of the drinks but we refused and paid our bill.Anuj Sharma, beverage manager, The Palace — The Old Town

VOX POP: With Gulfood round the corner, we asked F&B experts to describe their worst dining experience…

I’ll concede that the dishes were not that adventurous compared to the wealth of cuisine offered by the region’s outlets, but there was a choice of at least six options for each course. Plus, the scallop risotto I had on ‘Italian night’ was faultless and the omelette cooked fresh for me at break-fast was one of the nicest I have ever had. I heard no complaints from any of the guests I spoke to about the food, but I think I was more impressed than anyone by the level of speed and skill with which the food was produced; perhaps I have got used to slow service that other people — particularly older generations — would just not accept.

And then onto housekeeping, another highlight for me. Having checked in, there was soon a knock on the door from my room attendant, introducing herself to fi nd out if I would have any specifi c needs during my stay. She was to become a compan-ion for the trip, laughing along with me while I tried to master the cruise dress codes and having a chat with me morning and evening.

The secret behind the success of both the great dining experiences and the immaculate housekeeping is ser-vice — or Royal Caribbean’s Gold Anchor service to be precise.

Brilliance of the Seas has a crew of 800-plus, and I probably came into contact with 30 or so of these during my cruise. Without exception, they

were friendly, welcoming and genuine — nothing was scripted, instead per-sonalities were really shining through.

A cruise ship can’t be the easiest or most comfortable environment to work in, yet everybody was upbeat and dedicated. It was impressive and inspiring to see the crew interact with guests of all ages and nationalities —Brilliance of the Seas will carry peo-ple of 65 different nationalities during its 14-week Middle East tour.

The overall feeling, even as a fi rst time cruiser somewhat outside the average age bracket, was that you were part of a family. So many hotels talk of creating a ‘home from home’ — but I have never before seen this achieved better than on a cruise ship.

Now where’s the sense in that? HMEHME


18

working souq in a mish-mash of architectural styles dating mainly from the 1960s and ‘70s, has been ingeniously refurbished back to what might have been its appear-ance when the original souq there was founded 100 years ago.

Faced with a similar demographic imbalance to that experienced in Dubai, the Qataris have wisely invited Arab traders from Oman and other neighbouring countries to set up shop there, rather than turn-ing the souq into a little India or an outpost of Manila, and for tourists, this really makes a difference.

It will be interesting to see if any of Doha’s intrepid entrepreneurs will attempt to develop a boutique hotel in the Souq Waqif. It’s a proj-ect that’s begging to be undertaken.

For a still more authentic experi-ence, head for Nizwa in Adh Dakh-iliyah, the heartland of Oman. Nizwa was once the capital of Oman in the 6th and 7th centuries AH (13th

century AD) and is now a delight-fully quiet market town about an hour and a half from Muscat, and fi ve to six hours’ drive from Dubai.

To the casual visitor, Nizwa’s souq and fort look a lot like other areas of the Gulf that have been ‘over-restored’. But give Nizwa a chance and it will reveal itself to you. It was not only the country’s capital, but also the crucible of sil-ver-smithing in the Sultanate and true historic treasures can still be found. And when the tourists expe-rience these attractions at the hands of their ever-friendly and attentive Omani guides, they know they have found the authentic Gulf historical experience they were always look-ing for. HMEHME

COM

MEN

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Whether resident expatri-ates or week-long holi-daymakers, visitors to the Gulf often seek an

authentic experience of local his-tory. In some places, it’s either dif-fi cult to fi nd, or ironically, hard to tell when you do fi nd it.

My wife and I broke the habit of a lifetime and decided to be tourists in Dubai the other day. We spent a pleasant enough couple of hours in Dubai’s Bastakiyah district, where the government has restored a block of old Iranian wind tower houses and fi lled them with galleries, muse-ums, cafés, restaurants and gift shops. There are a couple of guest houses there too, including the XVA Gallery, a historic courtyard house which combines a contemporary art gallery with a vegetarian café and seven petite guest rooms, each fea-turing different interiors done up by local artists.

It’s a very welcome contrast to Dubai’s pervasive mirror-glass towers, international buffets and blaring discos, but is it authentic? I hate to downplay such a worthy endeavour, but the restoration work was so cleanly done through-out the district that one could hardly believe the original houses had been built a century before. The paint-ings and sculptures were great and I personally fi nd the whole rarefi ed ambience of cafés fi lled with middle

class, expat arty types very alluring. But somehow we felt there was an important missing link to the past of the place itself. The 10-room Ori-ent Guest House, another delightful courtyard property there, proudly displayed a sign saying ‘Starbucks coffee served here’ on its outside wall, which seemed to sum it all up.

Similar historic downtown dis-tricts have been restored in Sharjah and Doha, and thanks to their delib-erately rustic approach to fi nishing, they are arguably more successful.

STEP TO SHARJAHSharjah is a city of contrasts and mixes some very attractive parts such as its Khaled and Al Khan lagoon Corniches, the Qasba Canal, the Blue Souq and its Islamic-style university campus, with drab

IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE IF ANY OF DOHA’S INTREPID ENTREPRENEURS WILL ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP A BOUTIQUE HOTEL IN THE SOUQ WAQIF

industrial areas. The Arts and Her-itage Areas work so well, I believe, because they are not isolated from the ‘real’ Sharjah, and not restored so pristinely as to appear unreal. The district includes the restored Souk Al Arsah, where you can still get a cup of tea for a couple of dir-hams and where the shops are dusty and affordable. And the art galler-ies and museums there, including the Sharjah Art Museum and Shar-jah Museum of Islamic Arts and Culture, are genuinely worth a visit. All these attractions are surrounded by hotels and serviced apartments, including most notably the Radis-son Blu and Rotana.

In Doha, the equivalent is the Souq Waqif, adjacent to Grand Hamad Street and the CBD, where what was until recently a dirty

Viability director Guy Wilkinson turns tourist for a day in Dubai and heads to Sharjah, Nizwa and Doha to explore the accessibility of history, tradition and culture to the region’s visitors

In search of the authentic

Pottery in the Nizwa Souk in Oman, one of the authentic attractions encountered by Wilkinson on his travels.Im

age:

Guy

Wilk

inso

n

COLUMNIST

Guy Wilkinson is a director of Viability, a hospitality and property consulting fi rm in Dubai. For more information, email: [email protected]

21 - 24 February 2010 www.gulfood.com

INTERMETAL LTD.P.O. Box: 22285, Sharjah, UAE

TEL: +971 6 5322462, Fax: +971 6 5337271

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.intermetal.com

Visit us at our Stand: B1 - 10

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21


TOUGH TALK

Seven Tides Hospitality managing director Mike Scully predicts growth for hotel companies in developing countries — but only if they adopt a green culture and demonstrate low carbon initiatives in all markets now

Growth of a green culture

THE OWNER’S VIEW

Mike Scully has worked for some of the leading hotel management companies worldwide — Sun International, Holiday Inn, Accor and Starwood — as well as developing and managing properties for the Dubai Government. He is currently manag-ing director of Seven Tides — Hospitality, which will be opening four luxury properties in Dubai within the next 12 months and which also owns Dukes Hotel in London.

With the Copenhagen Cli-mate Change Conference out of the way without the hopeful agreements

being signed, I feel that it is only right that we look at this in the context of the hospitality industry and its long-term implications. It was highlighted once again at the conference that we have a new “Cold War” and this war between North and South as opposed to East and West is concentrated on the “haves” and the “have-nots”; the “haves” being the northern, prosper-ous, high-consuming energy coun-tries, who have been responsible in the most part for global warming, and the southern “have-nots”, who are trying to obtain aid from the north and will ultimately hold the north accountable for global warming.

How does this affect the hospital-ity industry? I believe that the largest growth potential for both hospitality developers and operators will be in the developing countries predomi-nantly in the south. These developing countries will hold western countries and companies to ransom on their green philosophies and practices. In essence, this is one of the few tools they have and they will use it willingly.

We, therefore, need now to ensure that we follow green low carbon phi-losophies on all projects, whether in developed nations or developing nations, in order to show that our organisations have developed a cul-ture of low energy consumption.

I have mentioned the word “cul-ture” in previous articles when talk-ing about an owner’s responsibility towards revenue management; I do so now in light of green issues as well. We are talking about team work from concept, architectural, development and management stages. If all parties show equal determination, I believe those who participate will gain — and can demand — priority status when developing nations are looking for partners. It must be remembered that energy costs money and develop-ing nations do not have the necessary resources to supply wasteful utilities.

ENERGY BREAKDOWNWe know that in the split of energy consumption in hotels, air condition-ing can account for between 30-40% (closer to 60-65% in the Middle East), lighting similar, hot water 8%, with the rest taken up by stoves, laundries etc.

The International Hotels and Res-taurant Association (IH&RA) and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation have set savings targets of more than 20% for the hospital-ity industry with the potential of up to 30%, which equates to savings of about US $40,000 per average size hotel per year.

This is mostly applicable to devel-oped properties, however, we need to be as committed to new builds, look-ing at design and construction using the latest green, low carbon technol-ogy. It is clear that whatever replaces current energy technology has to be affordable, reliable and low carbon. It is generally accepted that to build LEED equivalent standards, the costs could increase by anything up to 10%. I believe that this money will be well spent and the return on invest-ment will be relatively quick — and with the forecasted rise in price of util-

ities and green policy requirements, this ROI could be far quicker.

FUTURE APPROACHIt is not only technology which will reduce the carbon load of individual properties; it is the developer and owners’ requirements in conjunction with architects that need to be seri-ously addressed.

We need to look at the size of open areas that need air conditioning, the way our door systems work in regulat-ing air fl ow in and out of buildings, the size of windows and the positioning of the hotels with regards to sun and shade in order to reduce the HVAC requirements. The use of natural materials and in many cases ground cover can substantially reduce energy requirements too.

We all know what the leading lighting and equipment suppliers such as Phillips are offering in order to reduce consumption from lights, signage, TVs, kettles and hair dryers among many others. We also know that there are PMS and RMS systems available that can assist in substantial savings and these must be purchased and effectively used by operating companies. And this is where I stress once again the need for a low carbon culture where the owner/developer purchases the right equipment and agrees to an energy effi cient design, which the operator commits to using in the best interests of the owner.

There must also a move away from energy ineffi cient fi ve-star products to more low carbon friendly, good ser-vice four-star hotels. HMEHME

IT MUST BE REMEMBERED THAT ENERGY COSTS MONEY AND DEVELOPING NATIONS DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY RESOURCES TO SUPPLY WASTEFUL UTILITIES

Developing countries want to see green poli-cies in place in hotels all over the world.

Sevforgre

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22


TOUGH TALK

Red Engineering Middle East manag-ing director Mick Cairns says hotels can only achieve sustainability through proper design

Why green hotels depend on design

THE DESIGNER’S VIEW

The idea of sustainability is no longer fl oating at the margins of the built environment; it has become central to the con-

cept of what makes for ‘good design’. Although regulatory frameworks have begun to ensure that minimum standards of sustainability are incor-porated into building design, the pri-vate sector is catching on to this, recognising the commercial oppor-tunities associated with being, and being seen to be, ‘green’.

It is often taken for granted that improving the environmental creden-tials of a building through enhanced assessment LEED/BREEAM targets is guaranteed to add cost, but this does not have to be the case. The earlier in the design process that the principles of sustainable design are considered, the more likely it is that additional cost can be avoided.

While many operators have very well defi ned design guidelines which incorporate an absolute requirement for the inclusion of ‘green’ technolo-gies and in some cases go as far to stipulate energy consumption bench-marks, how many ‘carbon effi cient’ hotels are operating today? Sustain-able technologies that can be applied

to hotels are many and well docu-mented, however, it should be under-stood that this, in no way, guarantees effi cient operation of a building.

All too often, hotels are actually burning money and increasing carbon emissions due to excessive energy con-sumption. In some cases operators are the victim of the property they inherit; in others they are central to the cause. Key issues in relation to MEP systems that cause excessive energy consump-tion include:• Over-design (missed opportunity to apply suitable diversity, poor zon-ing of systems to match use-profi le of various spaces)• a poor approach to or lack of effec-tive commissioning • poor operational management

A safe, conventional MEP design solution that does not adequately con-sider the complexities and interaction of the various spaces within a four- or fi ve-star hotel can result in signifi cant over-design of local and central plant and equipment that results in grossly ineffi cient system operation.

This can increase energy consump-tion by 40-50% when compared to a well-considered design solution that challenges every aspect of each sys-tem and their intended performance and use-profi le.

By way of example, broadening the range of internal temperature and humidity control tolerances can bring signifi cant reductions in build-ing CO2 emissions without sacrifi c-ing anything signifi cant by way of occupant comfort. Energy modelling

is essential during the design phase — it allows the MEP designer to make informed decisions in respect to sys-tem and building diversity.

Early collaboration between designer and operator is strongly rec-ommended. Engineering systems, their maintenance and control, should be kept as simple as possible since it is the building operator who inherits the designer’s legacy. Moreover, con-tinued involvement of the designer in the fi rst year of building opera-tion can allow further refi nement of future projects by collecting data and analysing this against the energy models that were produced during the design. By taking a holistic approach, we better ensure that ‘green wash’ is avoided and our buildings are sus-tainable in the proper sense. HMEHME

Details: www.red-eng.com

THE EARLIER IN THE DESIGN PROCESS THAT THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN ARE CONSIDERED, THE MORE LIKELY IT IS THAT ADDITIONAL COST CAN BE AVOIDED

Designers hold the answers to sustainable solutions.

ReTO

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PEOP

LE24

Thai temptationsAs only the second CEO in Dusit International’s 62-year history, Chanin Donavanik outlines how he plans to follow in his founder mother’s footprints by prioritising carefully chosen hotel projects overseas alongside one of the largest industry education programmes in Asia

CEO INTERVIEW

You took over the management of Dusit International following your mother Thanpuying Chanut Piyaoui’s retirement aged 84. What are your plans now you are at the head of the company?The company was founded by my mother 62 years ago and since then we have not changed much. For her, she wanted to bring something Thai overseas because she believed very strongly in what the Thai people or the Thai culture could do to the hotel and hospitality fi eld and for 62 years we have been trying to do that. Just recently we have been expand-ing overseas and when we do that we want to bring something with a little bit of Thai passion to every place that we go into.

I have been working with the com-pany now for 32 years; we have been around for 62 years and I’m the sec-ond CEO. My mother retired four years ago when she turned 84. I don’t think I’m going to work until I’m 84!

Outside of Asia, Dusit already has hotels in Dubai and Egypt. What is your approach to overseas expansion?We have been trying to go overseas for 17/18 years now. We bought or we invested in the fi rst hotel in the early 90s overseas. At one time we bought a European hotel company, which we sold because of the Asian fi nan-cial crisis. As a company we are still very conservative, we don’t like to have debt so we have been very selec-tive of what we have been doing.

I think with Dubai we were a little bit lucky. I had the opportunity to meet someone here who gave us the fi rst opportunity to come here seven or eight years ago. He had a vision that he would like to bring something from Asia to Dubai, so we were the fi rst Asian hotel company in Dubai.

You said the company was very con-servative; has that assisted you in see-ing through the tough times of 2009?Yes I think so. It helped us so well that now we are actually starting to look for new investment. I think that before 2009 we had four or fi ve years of booming time for the hotel indus-try worldwide so a lot of hotel pric-ing and a lot of hotel investment had been too high. I think now is a good time to look and see what we can do –

AS A COMPANY WE ARE STILL VERY CONSERVATIVE, WE DON’T LIKE TO HAVE DEBT SO WE HAVE BEEN VERY SELECTIVE

Dusit International CEO Chanin Donavanik.

it is the best time to invest in the hotel business worldwide, maybe more so in the North American market because prices here have come down the most.

Would you expand further?Yes. There are a few cities in Europe and a few in North America. We are not a big company and the idea is not to be everywhere. The idea is to be in strategic cities and locations that we

can be long-term. In the last 62 years there has only been two CEOs in my company and we want a lot of rela-tionships, we want consistency, we want stability. We are not buying a hotel today to sell in fi ve years.

We have not looked at investing in Asia as much because the prices in Asia did not drop as much in 2009 and in some countries they have gone up. If you want to invest in a hotel in China today, it costs 30% more than last year. So in some countries it’s not worthwhile [for us to invest].

Right now we have almost 10 projects in the Middle East, we have seven in India, we have our fi rst proj-ect in China — we want to do more, we have just opened a development offi ce in China. We also recently opened an offi ce in Berlin and have offi ces in Dubai and New Delhi.

Following the opening of Dusit Prin-cess Dubai at the end of December, you now have three of your fi ve brands in Dubai. Tell us a little more about them?Dusit Thani has been around for a long time and is usually a more tra-ditional hotel or classic hotel in terms of Thai style. And they are big prop-erties with 500-600 rooms. We have Dusit Residence Dubai, which is a serviced apartment and our fi rst branded product in the serviced apartment business.

Last year, we opened the Dusit Princess — actually the Princess is my mother’s original hotel name; the name dates back 62 years. The

Number of staff working for Dusit International

8000


PEOPLE25

Dusit International currently operates four properties in Dubai and two in Egypt, including the new Dusit Thani Lakeview Cairo, which opened in the fi rst week of January this year.

Of Cairo, Donavanik says: “I think the market is quite strong and I think we also have a very good partner there. I think our hotel should be one of the top two, top three, top four in the whole of Cairo. It’s a top luxury hotel. It’s going to be better than many of the traditional major chain hotels”. Later this year, a Dusit Thani will open in

Abu Dhabi comprising 400 hotel rooms and 100 serviced apartments.

There are also Dusit Thani hotels sched-uled for Jeddah and Bahrain, both due to open at the end of 2012.

In terms of other Middle Eastern markets, Donavanik adds: “We like Oman. We have been looking at a few projects there. Hope-fully, in the next three months we can fi na-lise something there. We would like to fi nd something in Qatar and that would cover most of the Gulf states. In North Africa, we like Morocco”.

DUSIT IN THE MIDDLE EASTDusit Thani Dubai was the company’s fi rst hotel to open in the Middle East following a “lucky” opportunity.

reason why we call it Princess was because the fi rst hotel was opened by the elder sister of the King of Thai-land. It is a very fi rst class hotel, not a luxury hotel but it’s still comfortable and I think there’s going to be a lot of demand in the Middle Eastern mar-ket to have this kind of hotel.

We are trying our fi rst here in Dubai and we are very confi dent that it is going to be a success, then hope-fully we can grow the Dusit Princess brand throughout the Middle East.

Why did you launch the Residence brand in Dubai rather than Thailand?We have been looking at this busi-ness for a long time — in Thailand we have apartment buildings but we have not really done it in a way that it is linked to the hotel brand. We had an opportunity here and again we have been very lucky because the developer and owner were interested in working with us in their serviced apartment building, so we jumped at that. So I think we have been very lucky so far, the Dusit Residence is doing very well. Right now we are trying to grow the serviced apart-ments in this part of the world.

Can you describe your new brands?We have two other brands we have not brought in, the Dusit Devarana, which is a deluxe type of operation and we have started building that in a few parts of Asia. The fi rst one will be in New Delhi in India in May 2010. Then we have two to four com-ing up in fi ve years. We don’t have one in Dubai.

We have also been doing quite well with our lifestyle brand, which is a smaller, more boutique style of hotel brand called dusitD2. And we have a few opening now in Thailand; we want to grow that brand outside also.

We have many brands not because we try to be creative like some of the big boys; we need that because we want to grow and we want to cap-ture different markets and we want to capture it in a way that it is clearly defi ned. We don’t want to put our name to lots of different hotels so the customer is confused, we try to create different sub brands so that the cus-tomer will understand what they are looking at.

Will Dubai have all fi ve brands?I would love to, I do not know when but I would love to. We always see Dubai as a centre for this part of the world. We made this our headquar-ters for our operation in the Mid-dle East — it would be nice to have a product that we can show to people.

How are you progressing Dusit’s edu-cation programme?For a hotel company, at least in Asia, we are doing more than anyone else there in terms of hospitality educa-tion. Our Dusit Thani College, which offers a bachelor degree programme and has just started a masters degree programme, has been around for almost 15 years.

Right now we have 2200 students studying full-time so every year we graduate with a bachelor degree about 400 to 500 students.

We also are the only partner of Le Cordon Bleu cooking school from Paris — every year we have almost 1000 students going to our programme. We try to grow our education programmes, which was my mother’s decision 20 years back to see what we can do to prepare Asian new generations for the hotel industry. So, we have been in the Philippines for a year; we have a programme that we joined with one of the top universities in the Philip-pines. In the fi rst year we had almost 5000 students. This programme will have about 15,000 students when it has stabilised for the four year bach-elor degree programme, so we will be graduating maybe 3000 to 4000 peo-ple from the Philippines programme.

We are now discussing with people for India. We would like to bring our education programme to India and we are talking to someone in China. So it should be quite active in this area and it is something that people in Asia need.

We are not a large university, but this year we are going to have about 8000 people studying with us full time and as I said, the number is going to be close to 15,000 in a few years. But the most important thing is it is going to develop and train people so that as Asia is growing very fast in terms of hospitality and travel, these people are going to be helping the economy to grow as well. And why are we so popular — because most of our graduates don’t have a problem in looking for work.

How would you sum up future growth?There are 8000 people in the com-pany; I think within two or three years it’s going to be 15,000.

We have about 14 hotels opening in the next two years. We are going to be opening six, seven, eight hotels a year from now. That is not easy for a small company. It’s a lot of work. I think this is going to be good for our people; there are a lot of opportuni-ties for us to grow. HMEHME


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Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi has been opening in phases since October 2009? What stage is it at now?At the very beginning of October we opened with one restaurant and a few bedrooms.

During the month of October we opened Frankie’s Italian Restaurant and Marco Pierre White. By the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, we had our bedrooms open, we had three restaurants plus our pool, and the choco-late gallery on the fi rst fl oor. Now we’re by no means fi nished. In January, our big conference centre opened; that’s amazing as it has a ballroom for 900 people and a fabulous glass wall at the end with a view right across the creek and lovely outdoor gardens. We have also one more restaurant that will open this year — the con-cept looks to be a Lebanese restaurant. And our Cha-meleon Bar will open in February.

The big thing then is a very signifi cant Willow Stream Spa — it will have 16-17 treatment rooms, a hammam and be self-contained. We’ve taken the health club facilities and made those separate so if a guest wants to use the gym he doesn’t have to intrude into the spa space. And also when club member-ship opens up here for the beach, there are additional changing spaces for the beach guests.

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All’s fair in Abu Dhabi

Fairmont Bab Al Bahr general manager and company stalwart Michael Kaile explains why the luxury brand’s future success in the UAE capital is secure

GM INTERVIEW

Hotelier Middle East • February 2010


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The hotel has a fantastic Fairmont Gold area. Why was this a priority?We had to hasten to get ready for F1 and we are going to make some upgrades to this space over the next few months. You need an area to eat, then people want to sit and relax — you need that space — then you really need a proper check in area and greet-ing space and the butlers need room to move and do all the things that they need to do for the guests on this fl oor. This is very dedicated. We are fi nding a huge demand, and we are very lucky because Fairmont Gold manager Arnold Francisco and sev-eral of his team here came from the Fairmont Dubai. We have an amaz-ing butler team, probably the stron-gest butler team I’ve ever had in my career with Fairmont.

You previously opened Fairmont Dubai — how will you leverage this hotel’s established reputation?Having opened Fairmont Dubai I think that was the springboard that put the name into the region. Subse-quent Fairmont hotels on the Palm will follow, Cairo is now open and other Fairmonts in due course will follow too. This hotel will mature quickly because of the market demands, so you are going to have really two hotels to assist the rest of them and to help grow the brand across the Middle East.

Do you compete with the hotels on nearby Yas Island?We do but really what we’re bringing is critical mass. The word competi-tive set is really marketing jargon but what we’re adding is a critical mass

that will enable events to be held here and really the success depends on us physically being here — it’s a grow-ing marketplace.

It only reaches absurdity if the amount of new hotels coming in is out of total proportion to what can be absorbed by the marketplace. Then you get into a different situation; we’re not there yet. We’re going to fi ll the need of an enlarging market-place and there is a relationship at the moment, although it’s never perfect, but there’s more of a relationship here between supply and demand — obvi-ously with F1 there has been a little bit of a peak but if you draw the line out over a longer period you’ve got a much more harmonious situation.

What markets are you expecting to appeal to?This is very interesting. The market comes from so many different places, it tends to be generated out of demand for Abu Dhabi, therefore at least 60% of it is driven from the GCC.

This percentage at the moment is a guess because we haven’t had our conference centre going, but I would see at least 60-65% of business origi-nating from the GCC.

Maybe Abu Dhabi might pick up particularly in the European market, if you look at every room sold here for the rest of the world to do 40% its quite an undertaking.

We’re blessed now with Etihad Airways, the new terminal and the

airport and these are big wins. Dubai has so dominated the marketplace in this area for the last two to three years and now Abu Dhabi is getting its own share of recognition but it does take time to get some traction.

So do you see Abu Dhabi competing with Dubai now?Dubai went fi rst, Abu Dhabi is now going through a tremendous amount of change. I think the two are going in quite different directions, which is good. It’s not a case of one emirate competing against the other, they are going to be different.

The raison d’etre to come to Abu Dhabi is more culturally based, it is the capital. We’re quite privileged to be here in Abu Dhabi now. We’re a global company and speaking to my colleagues at Fairmont all over the world they always say ‘you are so lucky to be in Abu Dhabi’.

There’s a feeling that business is happening here, there’s a feeling you can do business here and there’s a feeling there’s business to be had here. In globally diffi cult times, while we are not immune, you still feel that the lights are still on. There is very much an optimistic feeling here in Abu Dhabi. HMEHME

Michael Kaile, or MK as he is affectionately known by the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr team, has worked in the industry since leaving hotel school in 1969. Having started his career with Trust House Hotels in the UK, Kaile moved to Bangkok to launch the Renaissance brand there and then to Canada with Commonwealth Hospitality — taking him to Vancouver, the place he now calls home.

Kaile joined Fairmont 19 years ago, opening the Fairmont Waterfront in Van-couver before moving to Bermuda with the company. His fi rst Middle East posting was the pre-opening of Fairmont Dubai in 2001, where he stayed for six years.

After a stint back in Canada, Kaile returned to the UAE in 2008 to join Fair-mont Bab Al Bahr, owned by Rmal Hospi-talty, part of the Al Fahim Group.

ABOUT MICHAEL KAILE

The stunning lobby at Fairmont Bab Al Bahr.

Kaile: we’re privileged to be located in Abu Dhabi.

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How to get revenue management rightKempinski Hotels VP distribution and revenue management Rex Demanser and IDeaS Eu-rope, Africa and Middle East major account holder Guy Barnes discuss the science of revenue management, urging hoteliers to place a renewed focus on training and integration in 2010

DEBATE

How have you seen revenue manage-ment evolve over your careers in the hotel industry?Guy Barnes: When I started out we practised inventory management. The priorities were simple — ensur-ing availability of rooms for sale, that rooms were priced correctly, and simple rate and sometimes length of stay controls were in place. Analysis of bookings, cancellations and even denials was underway, but all too often the quality of data avail-able affected the outcomes.

With improvements in data qual-ity, came a more scientifi c approach and more useful information. But with reporting lines often into sales and marketing, revenue manage-ment was often seen as a constrain-ing factor rather than a guiding light. Today, revenue management is a science, providing powerful intelligence, an early warning sys-tem, accurate forecasting and fi nely

tuned pricing and controls. In more and more cases revenue manage-ment is now given the profi le it deserves, with board level presence, and understood as a function that provides fi rm direction to maximise hotel revenues. The future is even more exciting, as revenue manage-ment has become more than just maximising rooms, but encom-passes meeting and events, is seen in managing restaurant space, and in total asset management.

Rex Demanser: I came into revenue management originally through reservations. We were doing reve-nue management before it was even called ‘revenue management’! At

that time we were just using spread-sheets etc to try and pick up trends and in my fi rst hotel where I really applied it (it was a small hotel in cen-tral London), we doubled the reve-nue in two months just by analysing demand. Five or sixth months later, we had tripled the overall revenue. I think our rack rate back then was £75 (US $121) which I kept push-ing and pushing, and was relentless in selling it. After that, I became known as ‘Rack Rate Rex’!

What key challenges do you face in your sector?RD: I guess the levels of knowl-edge of revenue management in the wider hotel community is the hard-

est and fi nding good people that just have a real passion for the numbers is tough. I think there’s also a lot of confusion between what revenue management is as a discipline and data analysts. Some people think that being a data analyst is being a revenue manager and it’s defi -nitely not. Anyone can crunch the numbers. I’ve seen revenue people, across different hotel groups, that think that putting these beautiful colourful spreadsheets together is revenue management. But unless you’re setting a price point for deci-sions, there’s no value.

GB: I think a lot of people also con-fuse people in reservations with revenue managers, so you can have someone put into the position of revenue manager when they really don’t have the discipline and the skill set for it. That selection can have an impact on that situation at that time, but also on the hotel’s view on employing a revenue man-

TODAY, REVENUE MANAGEMENT IS A SCIENCE, PROVIDING POWERFUL INTELLIGENCE, AN EARLY WARNING SYSTEM, ACCURATE FORECASTING AND FINELY TUNED PRICING AND CONTROLS


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IDeaS’ core business is hospitality reve-nue management, providing best of breed revenue optimisation solutions (revenue management systems) to hotels.

The company also provides a number of standalone tools and services, including the recently launched Rate Optimisation Service, which analyses a hotel’s existing pricing and makes recommendations on the pricing spectrum and associated pric-ing that should be in the market to opti-mise revenue.

“Just a 1% improvement in pricing can directly increase operating profi t far more than many cost cutting or sales improve-ment measures,” says IDeaS major account manager — EAME Guy Barnes.

IDeaS Advantage is the consulting arm, providing support for strategic revenue management and outsourcing services.

The company also provides a car park revenue optimisation solution and has also provided services for bus companies and event ticketing.

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IN GROWING MY CAREER IN REVENUE, I MUST HAVE RISKED MY NECK SO MANY TIMES

ager again in the future, or another third party organisation looking to evolve that property as well.

Historically there has been confusion as to what revenue management is and where it fi ts into a hotel organisation. Is the perception of it as a function that needs to sit at high level improving?RD: I think the enlightened CEOs may not know what revenue man-

agement is, but they know that they need it because they’ve seen the results driven by it. In fact, a colleague was at a CEO Confer-ence in Korea around four months ago, attended by a number of lead-ing international hotel CEOs, many of whom said that they expect their replacements to come from the rev-enue management discipline and that hotel groups should have their revenue management discipline

reporting directly to them. So it’s starting to get serious and ‘grow legs’ as a discipline, and it’s defi -nitely improving.

How important was Kempinski’s rev-enue management strategy and part-nership with IDeaS in managing busi-ness throughout the 2009 downturn?RD: I think it goes too far to say that IDeaS saved us in terms of over-coming the economic crisis, but I do think that with the Emirates Pal-ace it was very clear that there was an up lift. However, IDeaS contrib-utes as part of a collection of ordered tools, with other initiatives.

At this time [November 2009] for Kempinski, for our electronic business, we are 17 points down on 2008, primarily hit by GDS. We’ve been in recovery on web business since June, with every month show-ing year-on-year growth, culminat-ing in October with 13% year-on-year growth — I think double digit growth in the current environment is impressive. Some of our pack-ages and programmes have shown

440% year-on-year growth, which is a large chunk of change, not by changing the value proposition but rather by changing the way we oper-ate online.

In other words, don’t say some-thing in 100 words that you can say in three — say it in three and it will probably sell. But, as of yesterday, we are two points up on web busi-ness and we are hoping to fi nish 2009 up by about 5%. So I think 5%

Kempinski VP distribution and RM Rex Demanser.


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growth isn’t bad, in the current eco-nomic climate.

What is your current revenue man-agement strategy and how do you plan to build upon it in 2010?RD: I don’t know if it’s a revenue management strategy, but I want to look at how we can do more cen-tralised, even though I know our company strategy is regionalisa-tion. Can I get a passionate entre-preneurial business advisor [rev-enue manager], that really knows what they’re doing, in every hotel? Can they be of the right quality, cal-ibre and passion? Maybe I’m too old fashioned but I used to, when there wasn’t a revenue manage-ment system, work 32 hours in a row because I was trying to fi nd some formula, some pattern on pick-up and I wouldn’t go home until I had a number, or a formula or a number of rooms sold two days out, three days out, four days out and I would keep doing it until I saw the patterns.

Finding similar people with that kind of passion, or training, you just can’t beat it — it’s either there or it’s not there — but I’m still as passion-ate now as I was and so I’m thinking ‘bring some more in’ and fi nd fi ve passionate people and at least have them even if it’s not to revenue man-age hotels. I do see a point where I

can start bringing it much closer to home and I do think I can make a lot of money that way.

What are you doing to improve the training for revenue managers?RD: We’re looking at a revenue acad-emy for next year, including a half day for GMs because I also think the general managers need to know more about the important elements of revenue management. Certainly there are some who know what they are talking about but there are others that don’t. We had it on the agenda for 2009, but given the other projects we had and cut backs and costs etc, we thought it would be better in the fi rst quarter of 2010. So yes, there is a plan to get to a place where people are certifi ed to our level for revenue management.

GB: From my side there are a couple of things. One is that we’re work-ing in partnership with Cornell Uni-versity, where we’re sponsoring the revenue management course.

We’re also working with the British Association of Hospitality Accountants and Oxford Brookes University, so the more it’s becom-ing a discipline, the more we’re going to get people coming into the industry with that foundation rather than those coming at it as a

reservation manager who has been put in that position.

We’re also fi nding hotel groups are looking outside of the indus-try to bring revenue managers in, because they might have differ-ent experiences and might be the people able to analyse the data and take the risks rather than the people coming through the hotel ranks at the moment. It’s defi nitely different interests and different skill sets.

REVENUE MANAGEMENT OPERATED IN ISOLATION WITHIN THE HOTEL IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME

What skills does it take to be a good revenue manager?RD: With revenue management you need to be more entrepreneurial, you need to be moving all the time, akin to the stock market, adjust-ing the price points based on length of stay; spotting a new demand as it materialises; identifying a new trend — whether it be up or down — and moving with it quickly. That’s the fun of it! Everything is moving and evolving constantly, and as a reve-nue manager you need to be able to react and above all capitalise on it.

I think it’s passion but it’s also risk-taking. In growing my career in revenue, I must have risked my neck so many times — I mean, lit-erally, the whole thing on the line and I like living there, on the edge of good. Maybe one day I actually will get fi red, but it hasn’t happened so far! I must have gotten close, tell-ing the chairman of Hilton when he called me for a booking once, ‘if you’re telling me to take it, I have no choice as you’re the chairman, but if you’re asking me, my answer is over my dead body!’, and he said ‘No problem Rex’ and he hung up — but what a frightening fi ght that was.

That particular Tuesday night in the hotel, (they had owned it for about 10 or 11 years), but that par-ticular Tuesday night turned out to be the highest Average Daily Rate (ADR) in the history of the building – the highest single day’s revenue

Revenue management is starting to be applied to more than just rooms, with hoteliers talking about bringing solutions into food and beverage operations and meetings.


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Kempinski has been a client of IDeaS since 1999, at fi rst using its legacy revenue opti-misation solution in nine hotels. Since then these hotels have migrated over to IDeaS’ ASP delivered solution v5i and the IDeaS estate has grown to 17 Kempinski hotels.

An IDeaS client relationship manager is assigned to Kempinski, who has day to day interaction with the hotel revenue manag-ers. In total, 50% of IDeaS’ employees are dedicated to client servicing and support.

Of the decision to work with IDeaS, Kem-pinski Hotels vice president of distribution and revenue management Rex Demanser says: “Well, for a start, IDeaS has no seri-ous competitor as there is no one in the market that does everything that IDeaS does. I am absolutely convinced of that. There might be one other that gets close, but close is not good enough in this busi-ness. I think IDeaS also, as a company, is totally driven towards supporting their customers as that is the only income that they get. Which, of course, means that if they get it wrong, then their business fails! I think that provides something different in the way that customers are serviced”.

Since teaming up with IDeaS, Demanser adds: “I think that, on the upside, we’ve defi nitely been able to have access to a much wider range of products and tools (which have since become essential), on top of consistent increased revenue across

the board”. Out of this selection of prod-ucts, the solution that has proved most benefi cial to Kempinski is IDeaS’ Best Available Rate (BAR) module.

IDeaS major account manager — EAME Guy Barnes says: “The BAR module has arguably been the greatest success and through this IDeaS has been able to help Kempinski hotels to make optimal BAR pricing decisions, incorporating competi-tor rate shopping data and delivering the pricing to their internet channels through their channel manager”.

Demanser agrees: “Yes I think the Best Available Rate by Length of Stay module has been great, the Group Pricing module has been absolutely essential, the Fore-casting is getting better and better all the time. The integration with TravelClick Rat-eView has just been perfect because we can really see how our business clicks. The EZYield Channel Distribution has been great too. So basically I can revenue manage in one clear screen within IDeaS and then distribute to all channels before you’ve even had coffee in the morning!”

Most recently IDeaS has been able to support Kempinski Hotel Munich Airport directly through its IDeaS Advantage arm, following the departure of the hotel’s rev-enue manager, by providing interim out-sourcing of revenue management services, adds Barnes.

THE IDEAS AND KEMPINSKI PARTNERSHIP

in the history of the building. So they had no choice, the board had to write to me and say ‘congratu-lations’. But I was watching it for three months and it just shows you what you can do if you concentrate and go with your convictions.

What would be your top three tips to hotels looking to transform their reve-nue management department?RD: I think revenue management, as a concept or as a philosophy, oper-ated within isolation within the hotel is a complete waste of time — you may as well go home. If revenue management isn’t a culture across the executive team at a hotel, then you haven’t got everyone on board

to understand the power of it, what it can do and what it means. I think it has to be a collective management decision, and I think the biggest challenge to revenue management has always been built in isolation. It’s always one person, in one offi ce at one desk so that would be one top tip — you have to be fully adopted! There is now talk of revenue man-agement in food and beverage and in meetings, I mean it’s still a very un-talked about topic as we are really only talking about revenue management in most cases in terms of rooms. But there is an opportu-nity and it exists already, if you take the same ideas you can expand — that would be one tip.

The other is that you can do all the revenue management in the world, but if you don’t have integration between a revenue management system and your property manage-ment system (PMS), or reservations don’t know what or how to sell on a phone call with a customer, well then you’re lost again. It has to be that they know how to take the pric-ing output and then sell it appropri-ately because at the end of the day, the sales are still happening in most cases between two people. I’m hop-ing that will change over time but it has not changed yet. Some compa-nies are reporting 40% electronic production but maybe, maybe not.

Finally, training! Don’t think the system will be like some magic wand! Wouldn’t that be great? If you just bought a revenue manage-ment system and just plugged it in? But it just doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to work at it and you’ve got to keep advancing and I think IDeaS generally is.

GB: Honestly, I think my three top tips would simply be education, cul-ture and training. HMEHME

A good revenue manager must be willing to risk his neck.

IDeaS major account manager — EAME Guy Barnes.

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Green GiantsHotel engineering experts met at The Palace — The Old Town in Dubai to discuss not just how to save costs or energy in hotels, but how to save the world

How has the economic crisis impacted your engineering department?Abdul-Quddus Sheikh: I think we saved a handsome amount last year in the Palace hotel and we did very well as compared to the previous year’s util-ities’ consumption. We did not spend much on buying specifi ed energy sav-ing devices other than energy saving bulbs, timers and motion detectors — we found other ways and means to fulfi ll our needs. Plus the slow period forced us to look into alterna-tives to control our property opera-tion, maintenance and energy costs (POMEC). It’s my second complete year in this hotel and as a result of team effort we saved a good amount of money against our budget of 2009. In 2008, the total energy cost was AED 7.9 million (US $2.2 million), which reduced to AED 6.9 million ($1.9 million) in 2009. So the total energy savings compared to last

year’s consumption was more than AED 1 million less, or 17.8% less.

Sameh Zaki: The main issue with engineering is that we are a spend-ing department. We are actually the expenditure department, most of the other departments are revenue gen-erating, so we are on the spot for any saving. We are the main expenditure and at the same time the main saver — any dirham that you are saving is a complete dirham.

The pressure was there but we proved that engineering can come up with the solution. We saved some-thing like 20% on electricity and with water something like 12%. Everyone I think has done his best and we have survived the tough time.

Madan Kulkarni: With the participa-tion of our colleagues we became more innovative. It’s not that when everything is good we don’t imple-ment energy conservation projects, but it gets you more in depth. We

ROUNDTABLE opened a hotel in 2008 and accepted the challenge — there were many advisors who said is that right, but we proved the other way. From day one we knew we were opening in a crisis so had to be more innovative.

The consultant was very clear that you have to allow the building to run for two years before you establish an energy conservation programme but we did not wait — we said that’s a theory, let’s think practically, how we can save? So my F&B, engineering and housekeeping teams surveyed every nook and corner to see how we could bring down the energy bills. I do not have the fi gure to compare to my previous one because it did not exist, but I can confi dently say that we must have saved 30-35%.

Tito D’Costa: We opened our apart-ments last year and during this crisis we had to come up with new ideas. The contractors were trying to do it cheaply and put in normal bulbs, but we pushed them to go for CFL bulbs

and we succeeded. The entire apart-ments are fi tted with CFL bulbs. And with the chillers we adjusted the temperatures; the workers wanted them to be very cool but we were on their back not allowing them to play with the temperatures.

Wael Farouk: I will take it from there and I will really challenge myself and the engineering teams, because I have been asking myself if we can do it this year, then why have these things not been implemented for the previous year, why did we not focus on this in previous years? This is a question; I do not have an answer, this is a question for the group.

That is a good point. Everyone has been talking about energy saving with-out any prompting; is this your main pri-ority going forward?SZ: We had a very big challenge in Jumeirah last year. We did have our own sewage treatment plant but we got the opportunity to connect to the


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AL BUSTAN ROTANA IS THE ONLY HOTEL WHERE I COULD IMPLEMENT A SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEM — IT’S FANTASTIC

THE STAFF COMES UP WITH GREAT IDEAS ON ENERGY SAVING

municipality. So in doing that we lost the irrigation water that was coming from the sewage treatment plant, so we had to use the fresh water. One of our guys came up with an idea — we backwash the swimming pool, waste water is thrown to the drainage — why don’t we collect it and treat it and use it for irrigation? And actually we did that and this minimised the usage of fresh water by around 75%.Now we are collecting all the waste water from the different systems in the hotel and using it for that.

WF: For my side I will say that focus-ing on people gives the best result. So what we have done is inspired by

Earth Hour; in our associate hous-ing we have a weekly earth hour and every Saturday from 8-9pm we are encouraging our people to reduce the light to the minimum. We have created Marriott Business Council Green Committee –— every hotel is represented by two people — so what we are doing in the seven hotels we are doing at the same time.

We started only with reducing the lights; I’m planning to add more activities to that day. When you build these things into the people, you are sure they will do it in life.I don’t have solid fi gures because I have imple-mented this only six months ago, but for sure these thing count to their atti-tude and their awareness.

They know now that I’m not say-ing this because I want to be seen as a good engineering department — but because we really have a responsibil-ity and a role to play.

This was highlighted at the UN Climate Change Conference a few weeks ago — the ice is melting at 5km per hour so we have to start doing something. So we are putting our focus on energy not because we are saving it, but because it is a mat-ter of saving our world and we are lucky that the challenge is coming to us because they rely on us as engi-neers — we have the tools to help.

Can you give some practical exam-ples of the other steps you have taken to save energy that might inspire others to do the same?TC: We have ‘hotel talk’ every month — a meeting with the staff. The staff comes up with great ideas on energy saving. For example, on the emer-gency staircase someone said it should have motion sensors so a light should go on only when someone goes out there and we have already implemented it.

AQS: We introduced a ‘good idea box’, not only about energy saving but also guest experience, back of house improvement etc. That ignited the idea of forming a green commit-tee. We have done about 10/11 ses-sions of that. That has guided us a lot as everyone here has said — peo-ple on the fl oor come up with ideas. A junior chef said to use very dry wood to burn the charcoal, not the high tech fuel we had been using and we implemented that. An IT guy pro-grammed the system so everyone’s computer goes to sleep when not used and they did the same thing on the common printers.

MK: The cooks came up with an idea — we have a cold cuts section on the buffet where you take a large ice tray,

fi ll it with ice and then put your cold cuts on that. That’s a standard pro-cess. But I asked him how much of that ice melts? He said the ice they need is only 15% of the total content they fi ll it up with, but that they want the effect. It’s show business! So we came up with the idea that the lower base should still give the ice effect by putting plastic bubbles in it — it has reduced the quantity of ice by 80%. In today’s climate we are required to question everything.

What role do you think the govern-ment should play in helping you achieve your energy saving goals? Do you think Dubai government’s aim of reducing car-bon emissions in hotels by 20% by 2011 is achievable?AQS: That will not work as only the responsibility of the hotels. What happens in the city is they build a building and put four chillers on top and say ‘make it work’. But these are fi gures everyone knows — 60-65% of energy consumption in this coun-try is air conditioning (AC). To have that air conditioning coming from a chilled water plant would save — just as the whole of Europe is on cen-tral heating.

So we should really emphasise that the government should come up with a compulsion that every single build-ing should have chilled water from central plants. The chiller’s life var-ies from 10-12 years. Crowne Plaza Dubai is 15 years old now…they should set up a pipeline for them [to a central plant rather than replacing

Abdul-Quddus Sheikh

Tito D’Costa


PEOPLE39

GETTING TO KNOW YOU: HOTELIER’S EXPERT PANEL

Madan KulkarniDirector of engineeringThe Address Downtown

A mechanical engineer, Madan Kulkarni entered the hotel industry in 1978 with Taj hotels in Mumbai. He worked with Taj and Oberoi in India and moved to Dubai 10 years ago to join Ritz-Carlton. Kulkarni took up his current role with The Address Hotels and Resorts in mid-2008. He could not imagine doing any other job, saying he was “struck like a magnet with this industry”.

Sameh ZakiDirector of EngineeringHilton Dubai Jumeirah & Hilton Dubai Creek

Currently cluster director of engineering for Hilton’s properties in Dubai, Sameh Zaki has worked with Hilton for 25 years. He has been in Dubai for 10 years and previously worked at Hilton Abu Dhabi for four years. Prior to his hos-pitality career, Zaki was in the army for 12 years.

Tito D’CostaChief engineerAl Diar Siji Hotel

Tito D’Costa started his career in Dubai with The Metropolitan Hotel Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road. He worked there for fi ve years before moving to Fujairah, where he heads up the engineering department at Al Diar Siji Hotel and also the sister apartments, which opened last year. In total, D’Costa has been with Al Diar for 11 years.

Wael Ahmed FaroukDirector of engineeringCourtyard by Marriott & Marriott Executive Apartments Green Com-munity, Dubai

A civil engineer and graduate from Alexandria University, Wael Farouk worked in maintenance until 1997 but not in the hotel fi eld. He entered the industry in 1997 when he joined Marriott as assistant chief engineer at Marriott Renaissance Hotel in Alexan-dria in Egypt. Then he moved to Dubai for the opening of Courtyard Marriott in 2004 as director of engineering. He is currently cluster director of engineering for the Courtyard Marriott, Marriott Ex-ecutive Apartments Green Community and Marriott Executive Apartments Creek, and cant see himself working in any other fi eld.

Abdul-Quddus SheikhDirector of engineeringThe Palace — The Old Town

Abdul Quddus Sheikh began his hotel career with Bahrain Holiday Inn in 1978, when he was the handover engineer from the contractor. Since then he has worked with Holiday Inn in Muscat, Janbu, Abu Dhabi and Salalah. Remaining with InterContinental Hotels Group, he came to Crowne Plaza Dubai for the pre-opening and worked there for nine and a half years. Sheikh moved to Rotana, working with Al Bustan Rotana in 2001 and opening also Fujairah Rotana and Al Murooj Rotana in Dubai. He took up his current role at The Palace — The Old Town during the pre-opening in October 2007.

OUR FOCUS ON SAVING ENERGY IS A MATTER OF SAVING OUR WORLD

SAVING ENERGY IS A

®

®

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Wael Ahmed Farouk


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WE ARE ACTUALLY THE EXPENDITURE DEPARTMENT, MOST OF THE OTHER DEPARTMENTS ARE REVENUE GENERATING, SO WE ARE ON THE SPOT FOR ANY SAVING

FROM DAY ONE WE KNEW WE WERE OPENING IN A CRISIS SO HAD TO BE MORE INNOVATIVE

it again]. The law should be adding something into that.

MK: The new buildings have to take into consideration all these aspects. In my new building, I cannot say whether we have achieved 20% car-bon emission saving because every litre of oil, whether diesel or pet-rol, produces nearly 2.5kg of carbon dioxide emissions.

If I save three units that means I am saving one litre of petrol oil. The moment you have saved 3000 units you have already saved 10,000 units of petrol oil. That’s how the fi g-ures work. So if he has saved AED 50,000 ($13.617) in a year, he has only achieved the fi gure that I required to save the energy or carbon emission by one third of the source.

WF: I have something to say also and maybe my colleagues will agree with me. You know there is a new rule for cameras / CCTV — you are not allowed to renew your annual licence unless you bring a certifi cate from Dubai police. I strongly believe that a big focus will not be achieved with regard to energy-saving unless similar requirements are put on the renewal of the licence.

The problem is it is expensive to implement ideas. Solar panels, for

example, are very expensive but the impact is great. In some prop-erties, especially the old properties, you need to make ROI projects, you need to spend some money just to have the saving and unless you [make this law], yes awareness will change and some light bulbs will change, but this massive change will not come through small projects.

SZ: I don’t understand why this country is not using solar energy

That’s another good point! Why doesn’t the UAE use solar energy?AQS: Al-Bustan Rotana is the only hotel where I could implement a solar energy system. In summer we used to achieve hot water at almost 90ºC. The hot water energy costs in any hotel is around 10 to 12% of total energy cost. Out of this 10 to 12% we saved 75% of the hot water energy

cost (or 9.75% of total hotel energy cost) It is ongoing and saving a huge amount in that hotel. It’s fantastic — people have to think like this.

SZ: From the drawing board phase you have to think like this. You need the space for the solar panels — I don’t have this space. You can have all your water, all your AC run by solar but you need something like the whole roof to be covered with the solar panels. There is a big invest-ment, but there is a very big saving.

MK: It brings down your operating costs too.

TC: We have already put solar heaters in the staff accommodation.

AQS: If a law can be implemented for the CCTV, why can law not be implemented for a building with solar technology?

MK: Some countries have started making this mandatory. In parts of Europe they have made it manda-tory to use only CFL energy saving bulbs and stopped producing domes-tic demand on high energy consump-tion incandescent bulbs.

In our building, almost 75% of the public area is LED and cold cathodes — if you take 40w of normal bulbs versus 4w of LED, it has the same effect for the desired public areas and has a life span of 50,000 (LED) hours versus 1000 (incandescent) hours. So not only do we we save 36w per spot, we achieve the cooling effect in the building and the longevity of the bulbs is 50 times more.

WF: The short answer for your ques-tion of why is this not implemented now is because it is optional now. It is not mandatory. HMEHME

What are your views on this issue? Send them to: [email protected]

Madan Kulkarni

Sameh Zaki


43GULFOOD

Bringing F&B to lifeWith the F&B market becoming increasingly cut throat as customers expect more bang for their buck, creating theatre in your restaurants could help ensure you stay ahead of the game

As F&B professionals get pumped up for the event of the month — Gulfood 2010 (February 21-24) — where sourcing new prod-ucts and services, meeting suppliers and hunting down new trends is the mission, they have one overall objective — making money for their outlet/s. This means staying ahead of the game by ensuring their F&B concepts are innovative and tempting to

both hotel guests and general consumers alike.In order to stay competitive, F&B directors are being forced to be increas-

ingly creative. No longer is it enough to serve good food and provide good service — interactive concepts and experiential dining are expected.

It’s what has become known as restaurant theatre and according to many F&B professionals, outlets across this region have become adept at putting on a show due to challenging market conditions.

According to Grand Millennium Dubai director of F&B Nils Fromm, the region is actually fairly advanced in this respect: “The Middle East, and especially Dubai, is in many ways more advanced in creating new concepts

as the competition is fi erce. The investors also look for new and exciting ways of creating a theatre in order to push revenues and ROI.”

But even though the Middle East F&B industry is “one of the fastest grow-ing in the world”, it has a “long way to go” before it catches up with the likes of London and New York, which according to Hilton Dubai Creek director of restaurants Luca Gagliardi, have mastered the art of interactive dining and creating theatre.

Beat Enderli, executive chef at Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa, Oman, concurred but drew attention to Asian examples of theatre such as hawker stalls in Singapore, food courts in Thailand and food streets in Bei-jing. “In comparison, interactive cooking and dining is still not that common in the Middle East,” he added.

But Craig Cook, director of F&B at four upcoming Mövenpick properties in Dubai, said he believed the Middle East had “a great opportunity to inno-vate” and to “become a ‘blueprint’ for others”.

So,Hotelier set to work fi nding out the best way to liven up your outlets.


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WHY THEATRE?Cook’s colleague Peter Drescher, VP culinary Middle East at Möven-pick Hotels & Resorts, said theatre was important because these days, “diners don’t go to restaurants sim-ply to eat — they want to be stimu-lated in some way and come away remembering the experience”.

Cook added: “I think fi rst and foremost it is not about regurgi-tating what has been done before. Entertainment in this day and age must be fresh and lively and should breathe new life into outlets.

“Interesting demonstrations, per-formers, technology or media walls from inside the kitchen and most importantly, music, are all key in providing the overall experience and showmanship.”

Guests are also eager to see and be part of the action according to Fair-mont Bab Al Bahr executive chef John Cordeaux.

“Guests want to engage and be engaged more than ever,” he said. “It is important to offer theatre-style dining as guests have a better under-standing of the work behind prepa-ration and cooking processes.”

He said it was important to “break down barriers and create open spaces so that the energy and activ-

ity from the kitchen can merge with the guests in the dining room”.

Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi F&B director Dirk Bansemer agreed and said diners should be allowed to cre-ate parts of their meals themselves, while Al Bustan Palace’s director of F&B Rocco Bova said he would like to see a chef’s table inside the kitchen as well as singing waiters.

GET IN THE EXPERTSCreating theatre in restaurants is all well and good, but is it fair to dump the responsibility of generating drama on the F&B team?

“Food and beverage profession-als have always tried to capture entertainment facets related to their businesses, but let’s be honest, a food and beverage director is not an entertainment director,” said Möv-enpick’s Cook.

He noted that global hospitality entertainment leaders employed

entertainment directors to drive this component of their business.

Mövenpick’s Drescher stressed that hotel operators and owners should not be afraid to seek and invest in the services and knowledge of specialist consultants.

“We must offer more than just food and that is why we bring in the creative talents of food and beverage consultants, interior design consul-tants, graphic artists, kitchen con-sultants and even celebrity chefs, all of whom should be involved in the creation of restaurants,” he said.

BACK TO BASICSHilton’s Gagliardi reminded F&B directors to keep it real and ensure outlets offered concepts that were

compatible with the “existing posi-tioning of the restaurant”.

“For example, Verre by Gordon Ramsay would never look into per-formance-style concepts; it would never work with the understated mood of the restaurant where our focus is on innovative food and per-sonalised service,” he explained.

David Bedinghaus, executive chef at Mövenpick’s four new Dubai properties warned that in the race to fi nd new concepts to bring in the bucks, it was easy to overlook the obvious.

“I ask the question; if you were to have an absolutely perfect din-ing experience without theatre, would you be satisfi ed? How many establishments can say they genu-

Thorsten StraussCorporate development, Duni AB

DINING HAS LONG LOST ITS FUNCTIONAL FOCUS ON EATING AND TRANSFORMED TO THE EXPECTATION OF ENTERTAINMENT, DISTRACTION AND EXPERIENCE, WHICH LEAVE THE GUEST WITH A LASTING MEMORY

The Middle East has an opportunity to lead innovations in the F&B ‘entertainment’ fi eld.

Hotels should look to employ entertainment directors.

Hotels are looking to source custom-made equipment to kit out their outlets in order to stand out from the crowd.

Diners don’t just go to restaurants to eat — they go for emotional stimulation too.

It’s important to get the ‘basics’ right before working on theatrics.

Operators and owners should not be afraid to invest in specialist industry design consultants.

Authenticity is integral to theatrical experiences for guests.

Restaurants must offer theatre that is compatible with the existing dining experience in that outlet.

To execute theatre concepts, good staff must be employed.

KEY POINTS FROM THE EXPERTS

Nils FrommDirector of F&B, Grand Millennium Dubai

INVESTORS ALSO LOOK FOR NEW AND EXCITING WAYS OF CREATING A THEATRE IN ORDER TO PUSH REVENUES AND ROI

Al Khiran Restaurant & Terrace at Al Bustan Palace InterContinental Muscat in Oman.


GULFOOD45

Restaurant guests will demand a greater transparency and responsi-bility of product and pricing from food and beverage professionals.

A resurgence in organic food is expected as concern over unhealthy processed foods grows.

Casual fi ne dining — sophisticated diners demand an unpretentious environment in hotels.

Aesthetic designs of restaurants will become as important as the quality of the food and service.

New highs in customer dining expectations on two dimensions: authenticity and congruence.

Each F&B outlet must be holistic and offer truthful experiences — very important in today’s world of trickery and uncertainty.

F&B businesses will be under pres-sure to reduce their carbon footprint and look for green solutions.

More celebrity restaurants will pop up across the region.

Live cooking concepts and show cooking will become more popular.

Outlets will be demanding high-tech energy saving equipment.

Increased demand for a person-alised service and private and niche dining experiences.

Eating less, nibbling more plus food-sharing concepts.

Home-made food and artisan-grown produce.

The emergence of more bar con-cepts with the skilled barman becom-ing the ‘celebrity chef’.

F&B TRENDS FOR 2010

inely deliver all the basics correctly? The industry can sometimes get so wrapped up in differentiation that one might say the new USP would be delivering the basics correctly.”

Raffl es Dubai general manager John Pelling, who boasts an F&B background, said he was not con-vinced that adding more interactive options to restaurants was what the market needed. “I think the region has over-killed the special chef

Source: Thirty of the region’s top F&B directors and chefs

appearance act, live cooking sta-tions and cooking classes,” he said.

“It is not rocket science: based on the feedback received from the vari-ous focus groups conducted at Raf-fl es Dubai prior to the realignment of Fire & Ice, doing the basics to per-fection and offering consistency is more important,” said Pelling, refer-ring to the hotel’s signature restau-rant’s relaunch as a steakhouse at the end of last year.

Celebrity chef Gary Rhodes.

Grand Millennium Dubai, where F&B director Nils Fromm says it is good staff that bring an outlet to life.


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GUESTS WANT TO ENGAGE AND BE ENGAGED MORE THAN EVER

TOP TOOLSIn terms of whether or not the equipment, tools and services required to help create theatrical concepts were widely available, many agreed they were, although outlets at the top-end said they sought customised rather than mass-market offerings.

Some also noted that cooking equipment was often designed for back of house and was therefore “ugly” when used front of house, while others said many suppliers lacked stock and that waiting times of up to three months were common.

Grand Millennium’s Fromm stressed that although the hardware was important, the software — the staff — should not be overlooked.

Radisson Blu Hotel Dubai Media City operations manager Marco Aveta agreed: “What is really needed is more professional staff to run these multi-million projects the way they were intended. Many times we see outlets opening with very high stan-dards that are soon left to drop by unqualifi ed personnel and cost cut-ting in the wrong areas.”

Al Murooj Rotana F&B director Dominique Jossi said it was for this reason that he focused on the interac-tion of his team with the guests.

“Providing a personalised service is the most economical and effective way to keep the customer’s interest,” he added.

Madinat Jumeirah Resort execu-tive assistant F&B manager Mari-anne Zaiser Fitzgerald said the prop-

erty looked to the talent of its employees to create theatre.

“Some of our waiters are good at painting — all of our backdrops at the brunches are created by team members — and some are great sing-ers,” she said.

“This creates a personalised ser-vice and is received well internally.”

WHAT THE SUPPLIERS SAIDAccording to Thorsten Strauss, who heads up corporate develop-ment for European table-setting fi rm, Duni, theatre is “the key to success” in the F&B arena given that the consumer of the 21st cen-tury demands an experience.

“Dining has long lost its func-tional focus on eating and trans-formed to the expectation of entertainment, distraction and experience, which leave the guest with a lasting memory,” he said.

The challenge is to “touch the customer on an emotional level” and stimulate their senses.

Products such as table covers and napkins that look and feel good helped set the scene, he continued.

Strauss advised restaurants to avoid “overbearing gestures or actions like a noisy presentation or wild open kitchen”, and instead, “use many smaller details that constantly reinforce the total experience”.

Tableware specialist Villeroy & Boch AG said “emotional porcelain shapes“ added a third dimension to the dining experience.

“Creating special patterns and plates brings interior design to the table,” said Georges Schaaf of the fi rm’s hotel and restaurant division.

“Examples are at The Monarch Dubai or at Spectrum on One at the Fairmont, Dubai.”

Gasso Middle East CEO Payam Kashani held a similar view, explain-ing that the company’s range of Spe-cial Order products could be tailor-made for outlets in various shapes and sizes to attract guests’ attention.

“For example, in Al Ain at the Union Palace Restaurant we pro-vided a Seafood Boat Buffet in the shape and design of the traditional Middle Eastern ‘dhow boat’. It is the main attraction of the restaurant and all guests who visit take a picture of it as memorabilia,” said Payam.

German combi-steamer specialist Convotherm said it had installed the-

John CordeauxExecutive chef, Fairmont Bab Al Bahr

Most F&B professionals with whom Hotelier Middle East spoke said they were keen to attend Gulfood for a multitude of reasons.

David Bedinghaus, executive chef at Mövenpick’s four new Dubai proper-ties, said he was on a trend-spotting mission plus he liked to “observe the social behavior of those who attend — what do they do, how do they do things, why do they do these things — as observation is knowledge”, while his colleague, director of food and beverage, Craig Cook, said he looked forward to interacting with vendors, partners and industry professionals at a show that “serves as a great catalyst for new ideas”.

Al Bustan Rotana Dubai F&B direc-tor Franck Royer and Fairmont Bab Al Bahr F&B director Bastian Breuer both said they wanted to source new products at this year’s Gulfood.

Hilton Dubai Creek director of res-taurants Luca Gagliardi summed up reasons to attend Gulfood nicely: “It’s

a great way of networking with a host of new suppliers, and brushing up on industry knowledge,” he said.

Desert Palm executive chef Lionel Boyce added: “Pretty much every chef in Dubai will be at Gulfood looking for better ingredients to work with to give their venue the edge”.

Lastly, W Doha director of B&F Antoine Pravin said he was looking for something “completely new” at Gul-food, “like a buffet-size lollipop-mak-ing machine where you choose your favourite fl avour and not the same old deep-fryer or chocolate fountain”.

THE VALUE OF GULFOOD

W Doha’s Antoine Pravin is on the hunt for a

“buffet-size lollipop-making machine”.

W Doha’s Antoine Pravin is on the hunt for a

John PellingGM, Raffl es Dubai

I THINK THE REGION HAS OVER-KILLED THE SPECIAL CHEF APPEARANCE ACT, LIVE COOKING STATIONS AND COOKING CLASSES


GULFOOD47

Al Bustan Palace InterContinental, Muscat: features a tea lady who not only serves tea, but performs acro-batic stunts in Chinese Restaurant China Mood.

Beach Rotana, Abu Dhabi: interac-tive cooking shows and the use of Teppanyaki and rotisserie grills, pizza and Tandoori overs, plus an authentic Chinese Oven that has been used in Asia for more than 2400 years.

Verre by Gordon Ramsay: the restau-rant is currently being remodelled to create “a new dimension of inter-active dining”.

Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa, Oman: a combination of live enter-tainment, restaurant hostesses from the guest country, skilled showmanship chefs such as a noo-

dle maker from Xian and original and tasteful decorations and table setups are employed at the hotel’s Chinese outlet.

Raffl es Dubai: a live band plays jazz in Fire & Ice to fi t the New York steakhouse style atmosphere.

The Mina Seyahi complex, Dubai: hasambitious plans that include intro-ducing a ‘Bubblicious’ brunch in February involving three restaurants — Blu Orange, Hunters and Spice — with free-fl ow ‘bubbly’; a theatrical afternoon tea in the hotel lobby involving acrobats from China; and Spanish-themed evenings with a fl amenco concert.

Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Abu Dhabi: plansto offer cooking classes this sum-mer located in its custom chocolate atelier — The Chocolate Gallery.

F&B BOX OFFICE HITS

atre kitchen concepts at several hotels across the region including The Chedi Muscat, Rotana Hotel Yas Island and Jumeirah Beach Hotel.

The company offers workshops to show chefs how to use the equipment optimally in their day-to-day busi-ness, “thus they are more confi dent to present their work openly to the guests”, explained marketing man-ager Claudia Bußmann.

“Dinner is becoming an event and the guests wish to see the chef prepar-ing their meals,” she added.”

So while the jury is still out on exactly how far hotels should go in bringing their F&B outlets to life, as long as consultants, designers, oper-ators and suppliers continue to work together to devise innovative ideas, there are many options for a theatri-cal dining experience. There’s no excuse for dull dining anymore. HMEHME

The Mina Seyahi complex in Dubai will soon host a brunch involving three outlets including Blu Orange.

A lively display from table-setting specialist Duni.


GULFOOD49

Gulfood gives the big pictureThe key message for Gulfood 2010 is bigger, better business, says Gulfood project manager Goli Vossough, who spoke to Hotelier Middle East about the exhibition’s exciting expansion

By how much will Gulfood grow in 2010 compared to 2009 and previous years in terms of fl oor space, antici-pated exhibitor numbers and antici-pated visitor numbers? Gulfood is the fastest growing trade exhibition in the Middle East with year-on-year growth anticipated for every aspect of the show — exhibi-tor participation, footfall and prod-uct and service offerings.

With an increase in fl oor space of more than 20%, this year’s exhibi-tion will take up one million square feet of space to showcase the latest products, trends and industry inno-vations from more than 3300 par-ticipating companies. We anticipate more than 45,000 visitors from over 152 countries worldwide.

From where is that growth derived? With the Middle East and neigh-bouring regions targeted by the global food and beverage industry as key growth markets for the forth-coming decade, the importance and infl uence of Gulfood has reached new levels.

Dubai is increasingly exporting food products around the world with around AED 3.5 billion (US $950 million) traded in 2008 according to recent fi gures from Dubai Export Development Corporation. The emirate also re-exported AED 4.1 billion (US $1.1 billion) worth of food products in 2008.

Gulfood is without doubt, one of the most important trading plat-forms for the global food and bever-age industry in the region, which is refl ected in our growing number of exhibitors and the number of coun-tries participating. There will be 76 countries represented at Gulfood 2010 with country pavilions such as Argentina, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Spain, Turkey and the US

SHOW MANAGER Q&A

all reporting unprecedented growth at Gulfood. This year we also wel-come new companies from Kuwait, Libya, Peru, Portugal, Sudan, Ukraine and Uruguay.

What areas in particular are you expanding or introducing for the 2010 edition and why? With 20% increase in fl oor space we are now able to triple the size of Ingredients Middle East and locate it alongside Gulfood in the new Sheikh Saeed Halls, creating an all-encom-passing environment for the food industry. The Processing and Pack-ing sector will now also have its own dedicated area, refl ecting the impres-sive growth in this area of the food industry in the past 12 months.

WHEN: February 21-24WHERE: Dubai International Convention Centre (DICEC)BACKGROUND: Organised since 1987, Gulfood is a strategic platform for buy-ers and sellers within the F&B and hos-pitality trade to conduct direct business face to face. WHAT’S NEW? The inaugural Gulfood Conference; the Gulfood Majlis Club; inaugural Gulfood Awards.

THE STATS: The trade-only show reported record visitor numbers in 2009 with 45,735 trade professionals from 148 countries in attendance.PRICE:AED 60 for a day pass or AED 120 for a four-day pass.OPENING TIMES: 11am-7pm from Sun-day February 21 to Tuesday February 23 and 11am-5pm on Wednesday Febru-ary 24. INFORMATION: www.gulfood.com

ABOUT GULFOOD 2010

GULFOOD IS WITHOUT DOUBT, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TRADING PLATFORMS FOR THE GLOBAL FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY IN THE REGION

Vossough: the Gulfood Majlis Club will provide a commercial networking platform for professionals.


GULFOOD51

We have also introduced new coun-try pavilions including Columbia, Peru, Portugal and Uruguay.

What key trends have you noted in 2009 that you are responding to with the 2010 edition of the show?Many visit Gulfood knowing they can hear about the latest indus-try trends as Gulfood is used as a yard stick for the industry. There are many different trends that will impact the show, from the latest fl a-vours to more sleek designs in restau-rants and cafés.

The fundamental trends we have recognised in the industry are increasing pressure to deliver more cost effectively without compromis-

ing quality and the need for more creative marketing of culinary offers to continue to excite and interest end users and grow the bottom line.

As Gulfood attracts 3300 exhibi-tors and 45,000 trade visitors and provides a strong trading platform for them to share knowledge and inspiration, we are launching the fi rst Gulfood Conference under the title ‘Global Trends in Food, Beverage & Processing’. One of the highlights of

the fi rst day is a debate entitled ‘Top Ten Trends: The Industry Debates’.

Why did you decide to introduce the Gulfood Conference and what will the event discuss? In an industry that is as fast-paced and competitive as the food and bev-erage industry, knowledge exchange and keeping abreast of market trends is critical. Keynote speaker Saed Al Awadi, CEO of Dubai Export Devel-opment Corporation, will highlight Dubai’s credentials as an interna-tional trading hub while Alex Anda-rakis, CEO of Al Islami Foods, a pio-neer in the GCC’s processed halal food market, will provide a detailed overview of the global halal land-scape and the responsibilities and opportunities for companies operat-ing in this domain.

The conference will allow del-egates to meet the business leaders driving growth in one of the most important global markets, glean information and market analysis, and identify new methods, effi cien-cies and opportunities to win new customers and grow business.

Some of the trends being highlighted by exhibitors at Gulfood, Ingredients Middle East and in the processing and packaging sectors of the show include:QUICK FIX: Convenience is becoming increas-ingly important, with time-saving products such as ready-to-eat ingredients reporting universal growth. We expect to see more ultra-quick foods, bagged salads and side dishes that are still healthy.FANCY: People are choosing premium, gour-met foods. Fish in particular is undergoing a gourmet makeover globally, with a number of

new exhibitors at Gulfood this year introduc-ing new breeds and products.LAYERING OF FLAVOURS: Flavoured oils and vin-egars, pairings of fruity and tangy fl avours and Asian, Central American and Latin American fl avours are in vogue. LOW, NO AND LESS: Low fat trumps low carb in what people seek in labels. Trans-fats are on their way out. Demand for low calorie and light products will continue to grow. Watch for allergen-free claims on food labels. Source: Gulfood 2010 organiser Dubai World Trade Centre.

GULFOOD’S TOP TRENDS

THE FUNDAMENTAL TREND WE HAVE RECOGNISED IS INCREASING PRESSURE TO DELIVER MORE COST EFFECTIVELY WITHOUT COMPROMISING QUALITY

What else is new for 2010 and why? This year we launch the annual Gulfood Awards, which will rec-ognise the passion of individuals and companies behind the region’s exceptional food and drink indus-try. With 21 categories designed to reward innovation and excellence, the search is on for the best food and drink brands, services and suppliers.

We will also launch the Gulfood Majlis Club — a commercial net-working platform for senior industry professionals to develop new busi-ness opportunities.

Restaurants in the Middle East are increasingly looking to the ‘wow’ factor to compete by introducing live cooking and interactive concepts — how does Gulfood respond to that trend? Gulfood provides an excellent plat-form for the global industry to show-case the very latest innovations, product offerings and techniques from around the world.

The importance of the region’s F&B industry is refl ected in the con-siderable investment many exhibi-tors make in the production of their stands and in the high-profi le chefs and industry personalities that are invited by companies to demonstrate their products during the exhibition. We will also welcome many new companies this year bringing inno-vative products to the Middle East. They include global brands such as Hershey, Kraft and Symrise.

Of course, the much anticipated Emirates International Salon Culi-naire provides an excellent oppor-tunity for chefs to showcase their expertise and challenge existing boundaries in the world of food. This year more than 1300 chefs will compete for top honours in a num-ber of internationally-recognised categories. They will be evaluated by a panel of 25 renowned experts, mandated by the World Association of Chefs’ Societies (WACS) to judge culinary events across the globe.

What will be the key message from Gulfood 2010? The key message for Gulfood 2010 is bigger, better business. As the largest and most infl uential trade exhibition in the region for the F&B industry, it has never been more important for businesses and professionals to see and be seen at Gulfood. HMEHME

Vossough: the fi rst Gulfood Conference will enable delegates to interact with business leaders.

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Dubai | Doha | Bahrain | UK


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The 2010 installment of Gulfood in Dubai is set to be the biggest in its history, with 45,000 industry professionals expected to attend and the launch of the exhibition’s fi rst conference

SHOW PREVIEW

It’s that time of year again when clued-up hospitality and F&B professionals fl ock to Dubai In-ternational Convention Centre

(DICEC) to meet with suppliers, debate industry issues and unearth new trends.

They are, of course, heading to Gulfood, an exhibition which in 2010, looks set to be bigger and bet-ter than ever before.

Organiser Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) claims this year’s installment of the show — the Mid-dle East’s largest food, drink, food service and hospitality exhibition — which will take place from Feb-ruary 21-24 — is set to attract more than 45,000 industry professionals with an “unprecedented” 3300 com-panies exhibiting this year.

DWTC has underlined the impor-tance of Gulfood by highlighting the GCC’s rise to fame in the global food and drink arena.

Considered a key emerging mar-ket alongside the likes of China, Russia and Latin America, coun-tries in the GCC, North Africa and India have been earmarked as “windows of opportunity” for the industry according to the 2009 A.T.Kearney Global Retail Devel-opment Index.

“With almost 90% of Middle East countries dependent on food imports, tremendous opportunity

exists for food importers, packagers and manufacturers of food process-ing machinery to generate bigger, better, business at Gulfood,” said DWTC CEO Helal Saeed Almarri.

“Gulfood provides an ideal plat-form for businesses involved in every segment of the food and bev-erage industry to both source and showcase their products and ser-vices.We are working closely with our most valued trade clients to provide a package of measures to increase the value-offering at the show,” he said.

Gulfood 2010 will be the biggest event in the show’s 15-year his-tory, taking up one million square feet of dedicated space while extra components such as Restaurant & Café Middle East and Ingredients Middle East run concurrently with the show.

This year also marks the intro-duction of a number of value-added initiatives such as the inaugural Gulfood Conference, which comple-ments the Dubai International Food Safety Conference — organised by the Dubai Municipality to address food safety systems, regulations and best practices.

Also new this year is the launch of the Gulfood Majlis Club — a platform for senior industry profes-sionals to network and develop new business opportunities.

Additional features include Emirates International Salon Culi-naire in association with the Emir-

Food for thought

TREND PREDICTION:PRICE

TREND PREDICTION:QUALITY

“I believe there will be a rationalisation of pricing in 2010. Restaurants will serve smaller portions at the same quality and reduce prices. Instead of working with a 50% profi t and an empty restaurant, restaurants will work with a 30% profi t and a full restaurant.”

“The trend in F&B for 2010 for the Middle East will be to continue delivering high quality but with reduced prices and costs. As a result, sourcing great produce that is local to the region will also be a key trend. There will also be more effort made to retain business through loyalty programmes and benefi t cards compared to previous years.”

Tolga Sezer LacinComplex executive assistant manager food & beverage, Mina Seyahi Complex, Dubai

Kieron HuntDirector of F&B, IHG Dubai Festival City

The Salon Culinaire at Gulfood will present exciting and intricate work from some of the region’s aspiring young chefs.


GULFOOD55

GULFOOD PROVIDES AN IDEAL PLATFORM FOR BUSINESSES INVOLVED IN EVERY SEGMENT OF THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY TO BOTH SOURCE AND SHOWCASE THEIR PRODUCTS

Ingredients Middle East is the only event in the region that covers every aspect of this complex sector. Leading companies from around the world, who cultivate, extract, process or supply raw materials and ingredients used in the manufacturing of fi nished food, beverage and health food products, will be on hand, to discuss and share their knowledge.

The inaugural Gulfood Conference will take place during the four-day exhibition and bring together international experts to discuss future trends, critical issues and operational best practice in the food and beverage industry under the title: ‘Global trends in food, beverage and processing’.

The structure combines keynote speakers, seminars and networking sessions giving delegates the chance to debate and exchange views.

Key topics include global market trends in food; practical pricing strategies, how fi rms can insulate themselves from future volatility; product certifi cation; training and innovation in the bakery sector; innovations for small businesses and market trends in the beverage and dairy industries, while specialist sessions span topics such as IT; food and drink processing; ingredients; packaging trends; food and drink consumer

trends; business management; import/export; Halal; and marketing.

THE SPEAKER LINE-UP: Elizabeth Martins, head of MENA,

Business Monitor InternationalJan N Bergman, president EMEA, The

NutraSweet Company Virginie De Beco, regional marketing

director, Del MonteRichard Hall, chairman, ZenithSudhakar Tomar, chair person, CICILS-

IPTIC (World Pulses Organisation)Shonil Chande, food and drink analyst,

Business Monitor International Frans Kampers, research co-ordinator

Bionanotechnologies, Dubai Municipality/Wageningen UR

For more information visit www.gulfood.com/conference

ates Culinary Guild, where more than 1300 chefs compete in front of a panel of 25 international judges, and the inaugural Gulfood Awards, which will reward the achievements and innovations of the region’s food and drink industry.

Almarri says the line up of events at Gulfood 2010 proved the show continued to “support indus-try needs, promote knowledge exchange and recognise excellence in the industry”.

WHO’S ATTENDING?Many of the region’s F&B directors with whom Hotelier spoke said they intended to visit Gulfood.

IHG Dubai Festival City director of F&B Kieron Hunt said his entire team would be attending in order to source “new and innovative ideas” and “smarter and more effi cient tools and products” to enhance the complex’s dining experiences.

INGREDIENTS MIDDLE EAST

THE INAUGURAL GULFOOD CONFERENCE

Restaurant and Café Middle East is an exhibition showcasing products and services dedicated to the business of restaurants and cafés. Participating exhibitors range from interior and design

specialists to hardware and technology providers. The idea behind this show-within-a-show is to provide restaurant and café buyers with a one-stop shop for hunting down trends, products and innovations.

RESTAURANT & CAFÉ MIDDLE EAST

“By attending this year, we hope to strengthen our key account sup-plier relationships, identify new ideas that will cross over to guest experiences and aim to demon-strate the importance of supplier/customer relationships by sharing information and feedback,” he said.

However, some F&B profession-als such as Tolga Sezer Lacin, com-plex executive assistant manager food & beverage, Mina Seyahi Com-plex, Dubai, said he had stopped attending all such exhibitions.

“I don’t know Gulfood and to be honest, all these exhibitions are the same — too commercial and too boring for me,” he told Hotelier.

“I have done four hotel openings and when choosing your equip-ment, you have to be creative and go out and fi nd artists to work with — something you don’t fi nd in a factory. Where the budget allows, I always go for tailormade options.” HMEHME

.

Gulfood promises plenty of drama with the Salon Culinaire, the inaugural Gulfood Awards and the fi rst conference.

GULFOOD57


With thousands of products on show at Gulfood 2010, Hotelier guides you through some of the latest, greatest and most innovative products destined to be a hit at this year’s exhibition

Gulfood galore

For more information about Hotelier Middle East suppliers contact [email protected] or +971 (0)4 435 6274. For distributor details see page 100.

CATCH OF THE DAYSpanish crayfi sh processing company Alfocan will be at this year’s Gulfood presenting its array of catches.

The fi rm supplies freshwater crayfi sh and promises to provide buyers with a 100% natural product, without chemical substances or food-additives. Alfocan, from Seville in southern Spain, only sell crayfi sh caught in the wild.

AUSTRIAN BAKING TECHNOLOGYBack-tech, from Austria, will be displaying its Compact Roll Plant and Mega-Star machines at this year’s Gulfood.

Back-tech’s Compact Roll Plant is suitable for different types of dough such as wheat, rye, multi-cereal and sweet yeast raised dough; the machine’s components make it an ideal system for bakers.

The gentle dough processor Back-tech Mega-Star is designed to meet the demands of quality-conscious bakers who require a fully automatic, speed-adjustable modern dough dividing and moulding machine.

A SNIPPET OF ITALIAN FLAVOUR Italian cuisine wouldn’t be the same without a spoon-ful of olive oil and this extra virgin olive oil from Coppini is designed to meet that pur-pose. A box of Drago Chef extra virgin olive oil consists of easy grab 10ml packets, handy for busy restaurants and take-away outlets.

The product is available to purchase in the form of either six small cases each contain-ing 100 packets or 600 loose unit packets.

SIMPLY TOMATOESAustralian company Simply Tomatoes will be showcas-ing its green tomato products at this year’s show, as well as launching its Marinated Salt-bush range.

Selected exclusively for the food service sector, Simply Tomatoes has teamed up with Native Oz Cuisine to provide saltbush products such as Marinated Saltbush Skewers and Marinated Leaves.

These products offer a healthy, versatile Australian product, high in vitamin E and with a natural range of mineral salts, anti oxidants, calcium and crude protein.

Alfocan SATel: +34 95 421 67 00Fax: +34 95 421 59 37Email: [email protected]: www.alfocan.com

Simply Tomatoes Tel: +61 3 5455 4237Fax: +61 3 5455 4305Email: [email protected]: www.simplytomatoes.com.au

CoppiniTel: +39 744 813 778 Fax: +39 744 814 375 Email: [email protected]: www.coppini.com

Back-techTel: +43 3178 3244 0 Fax: +43 3178 3244 90Email: offi [email protected]: www.back-tech.com

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COVER UPSchwob will be showcasing its full range of fair-trade products from certifi ed organic sources to visitors at Gulfood 2010. The fi rm will present its newest collection of ecologically and socially compatible table and bed linen.

SEAL THE DEAL Sealed Air will be at this year’s Gulfood presenting its Cryovac Food Packag-ing products and services. It will bring a range of products — MAP concept Cryovac BDF, Cryovac LID, Mirabella, Darfresh 3-webs and special shrink bags, which are designed for the covering of whole fresh poultry products.

UP ALL NIGHTX35 Energy will be at this year’s Gulfood exhibition showcasing the latest addi-tion to its range.

Insomniya is a concen-trated energy hit, which claims to have no carbs, no sugar and no calories.

The drink promises to provide up to fi ve hours of energy, is available in a 60ml bottle and offers a blend of amino acids and B vitamins.

YOLK BE MAD TO MISS ITPollux, from Swiss-fi rm Bettcher Foodservice, is an egg pasteuriser that includes a variety of boiling functions and can store up to 60 cooked eggs at perfect consumption temperature for fi ve hours without further coagulation.

Castor, also from Bettcher, is a holding unit, which can be used in breakfast buffer presentation. It stores up to 30 cooked eggs in safe conditions for imme-diate consumption for three to fi ve hours.

Schwob AGTel: +41 79 400 37 14Fax: +41 34 422 50 94Email: [email protected]: www.schwob.ch

Bettcher Foodservice GmbhTel: +31 653 171 387Web: www.bettcher.com

X35 Energy Middle East FZCO Tel: +971 4 228 7654 Fax: +971 4 228 7659Email: [email protected]: www.x35energy.com

Sealed Air Tel: +39 02 933 2415 Fax: +39 02 933 2382Email: [email protected]: www.sealedair-emea.com

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EASY BLENDStreamline Smoothie Base from Scandic Food is designed to help the creation of easy-to-make creamy and cool smoothies.

The base product makes it easy to prepare smoothies in a short amount of time and appeals to the current popular smoothie trend across the Gulf region. It is ready to use from the pack — all an outlet’s staff member needs to do is blend it with fruit, berries and other ingredients.

FLORIDA FRESHFroze Fresh orange and grapefruit juices from United Juice Compa-nies of America are available freshly squeezed or gently pasteurised.

Made from fresh sweet Florida oranges, and grapefruits that are picked, squeezed and bottled, the juices are then quickly frozen using the fi rm’s proprietary freezing tech-nology. The company uses what it calls “the fi nest sweetest fruit” and added nothing more to its juices. Each variety is available in a one litre bottle and can come branded or with a private label.

BULK BAG DISCHARGER The Bulk Bag Discharger from Spirofl ow comes with an integral fl exible screw conveyor that is ideal for transferring bulk materials or ingredients to processing or packaging batches. Nine models are available, ranging from simple frames for non-dusty products to machines designed specifi cally for the dairy industry.

PURE PURÉESLes vergers Boiron’s, available from Gulfood exhibitors Chef Middle East, is a range of fruit purées designed to enable mixologists to shake top-quality fruits into cocktails. The company says that the fruit puree works in the same manner as fresh fruit that comes straight out of a blender.

Scandic Food A/S Tel: +45 75 71 18 00Email: [email protected]: www.scandic-food.dk

United Juice Companies of AmericaTel: +1 772 562 5442 Fax: +1 772 562 9229 Web: www.unitedjuice.com

Spirofl owTel: +44 1200 422 525Fax: +44 1200 429 165Web: www.spirofl ow.com

Chef Middle EastTel: +971 4 347 3455 Fax: +971 4 347 4844Email: [email protected]: www.chefmiddleeast.com


Schaerer Coffee Vito Great coffee - small machineDiscover the latest innovation from Schaerer for coffee connoisseurs: the Schaerer Coffee Vito. This multi-talented model is extremely compact, reliable and versatile, and still allows you to prepare all your favourite coffee and chocolate beverages. The Vito is designed to satisfy even the most demanding requirements of small to medium-sized restaurants, cafés and offices in a most impressive style.

www.schaerer.com

THE NEW COFFEE VITO AT GULFOOD 2010

HALL 2 | BOOTH C2-28

SWISS MADE

restaurants, cafés and offices in a most impressive style.

www.schaerer.com

Tel: (Cyprus Office) +357 25 81 42 10

Tel: (Dubai Office) +971 4 434 7275 - 6

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.signatureholdingscy.com

Signature MENA in collaboration with The Human Resource Department of Dubai

Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM)

Signature Worldwide, the leading provider of training and business

solutions to hotels and service-oriented industries, focuses on increasing

revenue through raising the standards of both customer service and

satisfaction.

Since its establishment in 1986, Signature has helped thousands of

clients turn high-level vision and strategy into everyday practice by

permanently changing the behaviour of people.

Following the growing awareness of telephone etiquette in customer

service, and understanding the importance of how information is

presented to the end customer, as of 2nd of March 2009, the Human

Resources Department of DTCM chose Signature Holdings (Cyprus) Ltd

(the official licensee for Signature Worldwide for the MENA region) to help

them ensure & monitor their service levels.

Specifically working with DTCM’s Human Resources Department, Signa-

ture created a customised pilot program whereby potential job applicants

and other DTCM employees contact the head offices and be profession-

ally directed through the proper service channels.

For this to happen, Signature, in collaboration with Human Resources of

DTCM, created a “Magic Formula” whereby through it’s implementation,

applicants and “internal customers” receive clear directions delivered

with exceptional customer service that mirrors the levels of excellence the

Department strives for.

The monitoring of the training is being done through the use of mystery

shoppers that test the customer service level offered. In order for this

program to be successful Signature made sure to establish “Buy In” from

the participants. “Buy In” is an important element in Signature’s approach

because in order to implement change, participants must first under-

stand the reasoning behind signature’s service methodology.

In addition to the Mystery Shopping services Signature provides, the HR

Department enjoys the benefits of reinforcement trainings as well as on-

site mystery shopping visits.

Signature’s philosophy is that “through a constant process of training,

coaching and the use of performance measurement tools, a lasting

change in your employees’ customer approach can be achieved”

To find out more about Signature’s programs and services, please

contact us at:

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MOBILE REFRIGERATION The ShowMaster is a mobile refrigerated dis-play case designed with sleek, smooth edges, which provides a hygienic presentation of food.

The temperature range is kept between 4°C and 10°C, maintaining a key HACCP rule. The food can be arranged clearly and the display case can be used as a salad bar, breakfast buffet or des-sert display case.

ENERGY BOOSTSaba International is introducing its new product called Recharge at this year’s Gulfood event.

Recharge has 1000mg Vitamin C per can, has no caffeine and the energy benefi ts come from electrolytes and sugar. The beverage adheres to Malay-sian Halal standards and is suitable for consumption by children, elderly peo-ple and pregnant women, with no side effects reported.

COPELAND BY EMERSONThe Copeland Scroll Outdoor Condensing Unit (ZX) is the latest addition to Emerson’s product line for food service applications.

It features real-time monitoring of compressor operating conditions and initiates actions to keep the compressor within a safe zone, thereby boosting the reliability and reducing the service time.

Other Emerson products, available from Fawaz Refrigeration, include the Scroll water cooled unit with co axial coil and Vilter Screw Compressors.

ShowMaster Vertriebs GmbHTel: +49 431 6 48 06 21Fax: +49 431 6 48 06 50Web: www.show-master.de

Saba International CompanyTel: +971 4 8814135Fax: +971 4 8814138Email: [email protected]: www.saba-inter.com

Fawaz RefrigerationTel: +971 4 228 2733Email: [email protected]

GOURMET DISPLAY Gourmet Display, whose products are available in the UAE through Al Diyafa, is launching its Cold Concept collection at Gulfood.

The Cold Concept display features a square plate, with either porcelain or high-grade melamine underneath.

The porcelain set-up chills food presentations for up to two hours, while the melamine set up chills presentations for up to one hour.

Al Diyafa DubaiTel: +971 4 343 4727 Email: [email protected]

F O O D , H O T E L & E Q U I P M E N T E X H I B I T I O N

21-24 FEBRUARY 2010DUBAÏ - WORLD TRADE CENTER

Food

Ingredients

Equipment

G )

French Pavilions at Gulfood 2010

21 - 24 February 2010

www.gulfood.com


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The industry has entered a watershed year for the region’s hotel marketers. Lee Jamiesonexplores the technological trends that are set to change the face of hotel marketing further still

MARKETING

The information age is in full swing and it has given rise to new concepts like web 2.0, social networking, aug-

mented reality and microblogging. At a fundamental level, these new developments all share a common characteristic: they are reinventing the ways in which people commu-nicate in their daily lives.

This has presented marketing managers with a whole new set of distribution channels with which to connect with their customers, build loyalty and promote their brand’s values. The astute marketers that have embraced these new devel-opments are changing the way the industry approaches marketing, forever altering the hotel marketing manager’s role.

“In the past few years, I’ve seen the role of marketing manager change a lot,” says Aloft Abu Dhabi online marketing manager Dan-iel Spijker. “Things like branding, events, online marketing and distri-bution have added to the traditional role of managing advertising chan-nels and in some cases have seen the marketing role separate from sales.

“Although I do think marketing and sales teams should be separate, I think both departments should ulti-mately report to a single person over-seeing sales, marketing and business development. In the larger hotels or more marketing-focused brands like Starwood’s W Hotels, you will fi nd a separate director of marketing, but in most hotels the teams are smaller and this is simply not feasible.”

Marketing and sales have always worked closely together, but mar-keters are emerging in the informa-tion age as a more active, autono-mous group with distinct goals. They have become more aggressive in how they position and differenti-ate their brand by actively engaging with their customers in new ways. Successful marketing today relies on a hotel’s ability to embrace new tech-nology and use it to foster an open, two-way dialogue with customers.

“According to Trendwatch-ing.com, consumers today depend more on reviews than on adverts when making a booking decision,” explains The Brand Union Middle East executive director of strategy Michael Hughes.

“Historically, people have always listened to the opinions of their

friends and family because they are more likely to be honest and share both positive and negative brand experiences. We are more likely to trust the input of fellow travellers than advertising promises from a brand. It’s not what they say, it’s what they do that really matters.”

With the technological infrastruc-ture now fi rmly in place, it is easy for customers to share experiences on websites like Tripadvisor.com, where users can rate, compare and comment on the quality of a hotel’s hospitality experience. Potential customers can also research with speed and effi ciency through online social networks and gather real-time, authentic experiences from around the world.

Therefore, social networking now plays a very important role in com-municating the brand’s values and protecting its reputation.

“Hotels must see the social media scene as a chance to engage their consumers with their brand,” con-tinues Hughes. “If hotels are able to keep track of websites and blogs and listen to what their consumers

are complaining about, then they can easily address the issues, fi x their fl aws, know their strengths, explore their threats and pursue their oppor-tunities,” he adds.

NEW TOOLSHotels have recognised that a huge proportion of their guests are actively using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and want to exploit these channels of communication. A strong presence on these sites enables hotels to open a dialogue with their guests on the customer’s preferred communica-tion channel.

In this sense, social marketing is building upon traditional meth-ods, not replacing them. The new technology simply allows hotels to operate in the same space as their customers, achieve deeper mar-ket penetration and develop more focused campaigns around distinct target markets.

“The hotel industry has always utilised the trendiest tools to attract the right audience,” explains JAL Hotels public relations manager

21st century marketing

MARKETERS ARE EMERGING IN THE INFORMATION AGE AS A MORE ACTIVE, AUTONOMOUS GROUP WITH DISTINCT GOALS

Libra OnDemand CEO Gregory Hopkins.


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Haruya Kusakabe. “At the moment, social marketing and online tools have become a primary focus.

“We’ve seen social marketing become more integrated in hotel marketing strategies because of its ability to attract a diverse clientele, its ease of use and its affordability. Many hotels in the region are now actively using social marketing and are fully engaged,” he says.

New tools require new resources. Although these web-sites are free to join and use, main-taining large online communities can quickly swallow up resources. Therefore, the greatest challenge for marketing managers is to bal-ance the time spent maintaining

presence on social networks with the amount of business generated. While the importance of online pres-ence is a diffi cult thing to factor into a ROI calculation, weak presence within the online community could damage the brand’s reputation in the long-term.

“I think that the effectiveness of social networking sites is debat-able because the maintenance and monitoring of these sites tends to be labour-intensive,” explains Hil-ton Worldwide regional director of marketing Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean Oliver Schmae-ing. “Currently, there is no glob-

Aloft Abu Dhabi has utilised Facebook to interact with a potential target audi-ence it would not normally be able to reach and create a “buzz” around the newly opened hotel.

Campaign reach: 6500 (80% in the UAE)

Daniel Spijker says: “We have been giv-ing away many prizes including a trip to Beijing, and even organised a big party

especially for our Facebook fans. This event attracted 200 people and gen-erated US $10,000 in revenue. More importantly, we’re already seeing evi-dence that awareness of our brand is spreading virally through the social net-works of our Facebook fans”.

SOCIAL MARKETING IN ACTION: ALOFT HOTELS ON FACEBOOKhave

bmoclafresocen

NressitetaincanThefor mance

i ll f F b k f Thi

The Brand Union Middle East executive director

of strategy Michael Hughes says reviews are crucial.


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package designed to leverage sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linke-dIn. Libra OnDemand enables hotels to monitor and engage with user profi les across a range of social networking sites as part of their mar-keting strategy.

“In recent years social media has become a new social discipline,” explains Libra OnDemand CEO Gregory Hopkins. “Our system facilitates stronger, more personal customer relationships and gives hotels more control over their brand’s online reputation by iden-tifying, tracking and responding to customer grievances (or praise) in real-time,” he says.

NEW POTENTIALThere is little doubt that 2010 will be a watershed year for hotel mar-keters. The technology surrounding social media is set to grow, which, in turn, is likely to increase the impor-tance of social networking for hotels.

“Hospitality and technology thrive on innovation and effi ciency,” explains Hilton’s Schmaeing, “and we will see the technological advances of the future aid our opera-tional effi ciencies through stream-lined designs, easier access and quicker downloads.”

The most important technologi-cal development predicted for 2010 is the sharp increase in SmartPhone

If social media doesn’t fi t with your brand, don’t do it!

If you are entering social marketing for the fi rst time, invest your resources in one network at a time.

Talk in the same language used by your customers on social networking sites — but always remain ethical.

Tackle negative online content and be open about how you have addressed your fl aws — don’t ignore this.

Put a dedicated team in place to manage your social marketing campaigns.

Align your marketing plan with emerging technologies and be the fi rst to capitalise.

Develop a strategy to convert fans and followers on social networking sites into sales.

Have a measuring system in place to ensure that your social marketing campaigns generate suffi cient business.

Use a service like Omniture or Google Analytics to track and understand your hotel’s online performance.

Ensure that social marketing supplements, rather than replaces, traditional marketing campaigns.

IMPROVE YOUR SOCIAL MARKETING: TOP TIPS

ally accepted method of measuring results or outreach and everyone is learning how to maximise the poten-tial of these new tools,” he continues.

“The best route to improve your social marketing strategy is to have a dedicated team to manage these sites. Unless the information posted is current and updated regularly, these sites can quickly lose their effectiveness,” adds Schmaeing.

NEW CONVERSATIONSThe burning question for 21st cen-tury marketers is how to harness and exploit the phenomenal growth of social networking. Twitter has more than 33 million users sharing one million messages (or “tweets”) per hour. More than 300 million people are also using Facebook.

The industry’s need for new tools to exploit these market develop-ments has prompted a range of new-to-market products.

“These days there is good soft-ware for everything you do online,” says Spijker. “For social media, there is some great software avail-able to manage your Twitter, Facebook and other social media

accounts. Personally I only use Tweetdeck occasionally for Twit-ter because I manage most of my websites through one online CMS system. This allows me to make real-time changes to my websites and

landing pages all in one go.”One company currently enter-

ing the Middle East offers a com-plete hospitality-specifi c CRM

users. SmartPhones represent the Middle East’s fastest growing and most profi table segment of the mobile telecom market and accord-ing to research from Informa Tele-coms and Media, sales are expected to grow by 41.7% year-on-year in 2010. From six million in 2009, SmartPhone sales are expected to top 8.5 million in 2010.

SmartPhones make social net-working more accessible by ensur-ing that users are permanently con-nected. Ultimately, this will increase the number of users and depth of market penetration — offering new unprecedented opportunities for astute 21st century hotel marketers.

Hilton Worldwide regional director of marketing Ara-

bian Peninsula and Indian Ocean Oliver Schmaeing.

THE MOST IMPORTANT TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT PREDICTED FOR 2010 IS THE SHARP INCREASE IN SMARTPHONE USERS


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“Undoubtedly, a main develop-ment will be the growth in mobile marketing,” confi rms Spijker. “With more and better devices coming to market, mobile internet speeds increasing, and the availability of better software, this will defi nitely grow into a profi table marketing

channel. For example, just take a look at the number of iPhone appli-cations already available for the hotel industry.”

NEW REALITIESIn 2010 it seems likely that hotel marketers will witness a conver-gence of sophisticated social net-working applications and new levels of technological accessibility.

Some pundits predict that this will completely alter the way in which customers view and evaluate indi-vidual hotels, hospitality concepts and bookings. SmartPhone enabled guests can instantly write reviews, make comments and upload photo-graphs as they experience it.

Similarly, potential customers no longer need to research in advance — they can read up about the best place to eat or stay en-route by read-ing as-it-happens reviews of local hotels and restaurants.

Technology in the 21st century will create a mixed reality for customers. Their physical world view will be

Aloft Abu Dhabi online marketing manager Daniel

Spijker believes marketing is separate from sales.

mixed with and informed by the vir-tual networks to which they belong — an idea that has become known as an augmented reality.

“Hotels can benefi t greatly from augmented realities,” explains The Brand Union’s Hughes. “With this service, consumers will be able to use their cellular phone to locate, view, book, and review hotels. They can review local events taking place in different venues, attracting not only those staying at the hotel, but also those passing by and looking for something to do.”

“We’ve already seen augmented reality starting to spread across the world with GPS applications on cel-lular phones. So, there is no doubt that augmented reality will kick off and become a norm for all travellers in the future,” he asserts.

With technology shifting and maturing, it is diffi cult for market-ing managers to fully capitalise upon these current developments.

For some, questions still remain over the value of social marketing

because its wider potential has yet to be proved. In addition, the Middle East’s status as an international hub complicates matters further and makes it diffi cult for hotel marketers in the region to identify and target their customers.

“Hoteliers in the Middle East are quite active and creative in using social networking tools to attract customers,” says JAL Hotels’ Kusak-abe. “But hoteliers in the region must continue their market research in the social networking fi eld in order to reach a larger portion, if not most, of their customers.” HMEHME

COUNTRY UPDATE: OMAN

69


Oman is busy rebranding itself. Less than 25 years ago, it was a non-welcom-ing country with little in-

terest in tourism. Today, Oman has proved itself to be a sophisticated tourist destination with strong vis-ibility — and it is fast attracting the attention of big-name international hotel brands.

Last year the Oman Brand Man-agement Unit launched a new “tour-ist friendly” national logo for the country, dropping the traditional Omani dagger. Brand Oman was offi cially born in January 2009 and prides itself on promoting “the essence of Arabia” by focusing on the county’s rich cultural heritage.

With resilience in the face of eco-nomic downturn, liberalisation of its foreign direct investment poli-cies, and heavy investment into its tourism development, including a US $3 billion expansion of its air-port infrastructure, Oman has never been so attractive to hotel develop-ers, owners and operators.

A BRAND IS BORNWith diminishing oil and gas resources, Oman has been diversify-

ing its economy through the devel-opment of its tourism industry. This year marks the halfway point for His Majesty Sultan Qaboos’ Vision 2020, which outlines the strategic direction for Oman’s travel and tourism industry.

A key development in this plan was the creation of a new Ministry of Tourism in 2004. Alongside devel-oping Oman as a high quality desti-

Lee Jamieson explores the emergence of Oman as a sophisticated tourist destination with strong brand values that set it apart in the Middle East

COUNTRY FOCUS nation, the Ministry also deployed representatives into its European source markets with measurable success. For example, Euromoni-tor International reports that arriv-als from the UK have experienced a compound annual growth rate of 45% since 2003.

“According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Oman’s tourism sector is one of the fastest

growing in the world,” says Rotana chief operating offi cer Imad Elias. “The growth rate is attributed to an increase in lodging capacity and efforts made to market the sultanate as a tourist destination, which pres-ents lots of opportunities for a man-agement company like Rotana.”

Oman’s strategic and fi nancial commitment to its tourism industry has created an attractive business environment for hotel developers, owners and operators.

“There has been a defi nite increase in tourism in Oman over the last few years, which has had a positive impact on the hotel indus-try,” says InterContinental Hotels Group vice president for devel-opment Phil Kasselis. “This year the country is on course for an 11% increase in tourists, taking it past the two million mark as Gulf resi-dents look for an alternative holiday destination in the region.

“Against the backdrop of the country’s strong economic perfor-mance, travel and tourism has now emerged as one of the main pillars of the Omani economy. This creates a strong foundation for investors and the fi nancial institutions backing those investors.”

However, hoteliers should be mindful that Oman’s emergence as

THE RESULT IS A SERIOUS COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT QUITE UNLIKE ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE REGION

Oman is both green and mountainous, with beach and desert too.

COUN

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UPDA

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MAN

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A Hotel Missoni, Rezidor’s latest boutique offering, is also planned for Oman. This designer brand has been developed in co-operation with the iconic Italian fashion house Missoni and will open as a 250-key property on a self-suffi cient resort 30 kilometres from Muscat in 2012.

As you would expect in the cur-rent economic climate, work has slowed on many high-end develop-ments. Worst hit was the Blue City, Oman’s landmark tourism devel-opment project, which had its US $400 million bonds downgraded by Moody’s in Q4 of 2008. Despite its fi nancial woes, the developer has confi rmed that the fi rst phase of the 34 square kilometre project is on schedule and will be delivered later this year. Phase one will deliver the fi rst of its 16 hotels: a boutique prop-erty operated by Anantara.

MID-MARKET BRANDSMaturation on the higher end of Oman’s luxury rating has created a need for mid-market brands and international operators are looking to expand their portfolios appro-priately. For example, last year saw Rezidor launch Park Inn, its fl ag-ship mid-market brand, for the fi rst time in Oman.

“We recognised an opportunity for our Park Inn brand in Mus-

cat because this market has been largely served by international brands aimed at the luxury trav-eller,” explains The Rezidor Hotel Group area vice president, Marko Hytönen. “Park Inn offers a fresh and innovative alternative to this by delivering a great, yet affordable hotel experience.”

The market need for mid-range concepts has also caught the eye of Premier Inn Hotels’ managing director Darroch Crawford, who has recently signed a joint venture agreement to develop Premier Inn properties in the country.

“I think that the country has a shortage of affordable hotels in several key locations and is there-fore ideal for Premier Inn invest-ment,” says Crawford. “Strategi-cally speaking, we plan to establish Premier Inn as the leading brand in our sector of the market across the

Tourism concepts can easily be built around Oman’s naturally rich cultural heritage.

Maturation of the market is providing fresh investment opportunities in most sectors.

Arrivals into Oman are set to more than double by 2013.

An effective network of market-based representatives provide good reach into Oman’s key source markets.

The expansion of Muscat International Airport is set to increase capacity to 24 million passengers (from three million passengers in 2007).

Three new airports are planned for Oman’s key tourist areas.

A clear tourism strategy has been put in place by Oman’s Ministry of Tourism.

Recent liberalisation of Oman’s fi scal policies has

attracted higher levels of FDI.

Restrictions on foreigners owning freehold properties has been lifted in tourist areas.

Competitive operational costs for businesses.

10 REASONS TO INVEST IN OMAN

a tourist destination is not yet com-plete and could be prone to grow-ing pains. “While Oman is an attrac-tive leisure destination it is not yet equipped to deal with large scale tourism and events,” explains Möv-enpick Hotels and Resorts senior vice president in the Middle East, Andreas Mattmuller.

“It is therefore important for developers and owners to ensure that their product fi ts the market.”

The Omani government has also adopted a cautious approach towards mass tourism and has focused its efforts on fostering growth within specifi c sectors and niches. Arguably, this has enabled distinct brand identities to emerge across the industry.

LUXURY BRANDS Oman’s priority was to foster growth at the high end of the lux-ury rating, enabling it to reap the fi nancial benefi ts of tourism while minimising its impact upon local resources. Its reputation for high-end hospitality experiences contin-ues to attract luxury and boutique brands. For example, Rotana has recently secured the new manage-ment contract for the fi ve-star Salalah Rotana Resort, a 400-room property opening in early 2012.

FORECASTING OMAN’S ARRIVALS: 2010-2013

Source: Euromonitor International

Year '000 people

2010 3,256.3

2011 4,280.5

2012 5,775.7

2013 7,461.7

Marriott’s Jeff Strachan will respect Oman’s focus

on sustainable tourism at its Salalah property.

Rezidor’s Marko Hytonen: Radisson won an award

for being the best employer for Omani nationals.

Rotana chief operating offi cer Imad Elias.

A Hotel Missoni is planned for Muscat in 2012.


71


GCC, so Oman is a key target for us. We are currently working on our fi rst property in Muscat followed by projects in at least two other areas.”

ECO-BRANDSThe slow-but-steady trend for responsible tourism in Oman has followed the Omani government’s policy of fostering a quality tourism experience — attracting visitors to its cultural heritage rather than pro-moting its beaches.

“Oman is becoming a popular eco-destination and is internationally known for its wildlife,” says IHG’s Kasselis. “There is bird watching,

whale watching, diving and natu-ral reserves for visitors to explore. It also has an unprecedented number of UNESCO-classifi ed world heri-tage sites for its size.”

The Environment Society of Oman was established in the same year as Oman’s Ministry of Tour-ism and is tasked with preserving Oman’s environment — both nat-ural and cultural. The result is a serious commitment to sustainable tourism development quite unlike any other country in the region.

“Oman is determined to promote itself as a high-quality destination aimed primarily at responsible tour-ists,” explains Mövenpick’s Matt-muller. “This is all part of Oman’s

OMAN HOTEL PERFORMANCE IN 2009

Source: STR Global

Date Occupancy (%) ADR (US $) RevPar (US $)

Jan 09 68.3 297.61 203.29

Feb 09 67.6 262.78 177.52

Mar 09 63.0 252.91 159.36

Apr 09 60.9 269.52 164.01

May 09 49.4 206.19 101.84

Jun 09 41.1 172.81 71.04

Jul 09 40.3 169.41 68.34

Aug 09 38.6 167.44 64.56

Sept 09 36.6 182.38 66.70

Oct 09 63.7 244.66 155.78

Nov 09 67.6 236.62 160.02

YTD (Nov 09) 54.2 232.66 126.00

Marriott Salalah, a 237-room property, will open this year. Protecting the landscape is critical to Brand Oman.

Rotana will open a 400-room hotel in Salalah in 2012.

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OMANI NATIONALS CURRENTLY ACCOUNT FOR 37% OF THE TOURIST INDUSTRY’S WORKFORCE

OMAN’S UPCOMING PROPERTY PIPELINECompany City/Region Brand Property Rating Rooms S A R V/C Opening

Marriott Salalah Marriott Resort Salalah Marriott Resort Five-star 237 0 0 0 0 2010

Golden Tulip Al Qurm Golden Tulip Golden Tulip Al Qurm, Muscat Four-star 180 0 0 0 0 2010

Rotana Sohar Centro Centro - Sohar Three-star 300 0 0 0 0 2011

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts Salalah Movenpick Movenpick Resort Salalah Five-star 400 0 0 0 0 2012

IHG Duqm Crowne Plaza Crowne Plaza Duqum Resort Five-star 228 0 0 0 0 2010

IHG Muscat InterContinental InterContinental Al Madina A’Zarqa Five-star 248 0 0 0 0 2012

IHG Muscat Holiday Inn Holiday Inn Muscat Midscale 220 0 0 0 0 2011

Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts Sifa Banyan Tree Banyan Tree Sifa Five-star 133 0 0 0 0 2012

Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts Sifa Angsana Angsana Sifa Five-star 150 0 0 0 0 2012

Premier Inn Muscat Premier Inn Muscat Three-star 180 0 0 0 0 2012

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Muscat Fairmont Fairmont The Wave, Muscat Five-star 300 0 0 0 0 2012

The Rezidor Hotel Group Sohar Radisson Radisson Sohar Four-star 209 0 0 0 0 2012

The Rezidor Hotel Group Sifah Missoni Missoni Sifah Five-star 250 0 0 0 0 2012

Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts Muscat Jumeirah Jumeirah Al Salam Yiti Resort Five-star 350 0 0 0 0 2010

Key: S = Suites | A = Apartments | R = Residences | V/C = Villas/Chalets

long-term vision, which is based on sustainability, cultural heritage, quality and security. These attri-butes offer great opportunities to investors in the long term.”

By fi ercely protecting its Arabian culture and heritage, Oman has managed to foster a travel and tour-ism industry that rejects the cook-ie-cutter approach. Instead, Oman offers an authentic experience to visitors and hotels are encouraged to work alongside communities in a responsible manner.

This has informed the approach of Marriott, which is entering Oman in 2010 for the fi rst time via Salalah with its 237-key property.

“This is a very authentic country and we do not want to turn up and impose ourselves upon the local community,” explains Marriott Hotels International area director

for sales and marketing in the Mid-dle East, Jeff Strachan.

“We prefer to grow into an inte-gral member of the community, properly and responsibly. It is always wise to be understanding of the local customs and nuances and be sensitive to the opinions of the local community.”

OMANISATION According to Euromonitor Inter-national, Omani nationals cur-rently account for 37% of the tourist industry’s workforce. By the end of this year, the government wants to increase this to 85%.

Having a high percentage of Omani nationals working in the industry will be successful on two fronts: not only will it create jobs for Omani locals, it will also strengthen the authenticity of Oman’s tourism experience and cultural heritage.

However, achieving the govern-ment’s Omanisation targets is forc-ing hoteliers, already coping with an international talent squeeze within the hospitality industry, to recon-sider their recruitment strategies.

“The high Omanisation targets are challenging,” says Hytönen.

“This is particularly true for the private sector and our recruitment strategy in Oman differs to that in

other Middle East countries. We are aggressively recruiting, train-ing and promoting local staff within our hotels and we are very proud to confi rm that we have managed to achieve a very high Omanisation percentage,” he continues.

“In fact, Radisson won an award for being the best employer for Omani nationals.”

For Omanisation to be success-ful in the long term, hoteliers need to work closely with local colleges to foster a strong Omani work-force capable of dealing with the demands of the hospitality industry. They also need to develop and prog-ress Omani nationals into middle management roles, where the talent squeeze is most acute.

This has become a primary con-cern for most of the major opera-tors, including IHG, which claims that Al Bustan Palace InterConti-nental Muscat has the highest quota of Omani employees than any other hotel in the sultanate.

“Not only do we ensure that 85% of our staff are Omani nation-als,” explains Kasselis, “but we also ensure that Omani nationals work across all hierarchical levels by put-ting in place succession plans to grow our Omani staff into manage-rial roles.

“At IHG, we have developed training and development pro-grammes for our employees to help build and maintain a strong com-mon culture, helping to minimise our attrition rate and entice great new employees from both the local and international communities.”

It seems that Oman is in control of its own destiny. Its rapid expansion is being strategically channelled by the government’s strong, long-term vision and adherence to a clear set of brand values. Also, the Omani authorities are unafraid to put in place diffi cult policies to protect its greatest assets: its cultural heri-tage, natural beauty and its people.

Having earned its much-deserved respect from hotel operators, Brand Oman is here to stay. HMEHME

Darroch Crawford: Oman is a key target for Premier Inn. Phil Kasselis says IHG ensures 85% of its staff at Al

Bustan Palace InterContinental Muscat are Omani.

75


Luxury linen supplier Frette has cel-ebrated its 150th anniversary by hold-ing a major event at the Burj Al Arab under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Dubai.

According to Malek Loeb, man-aging partner of EF Gulf which in 2009 was appointed the local partner for Frette in the UAE, “a high calibre gala event was vital to present the new era of Frette in the UAE along with the celebration of the 150-year anniversary of the brand”.

She said: “Last year, EF Gulf became the offi cial sole distributor for Frette Retail — along with the hospitality exclusive licence — with an ownership of a luxury shop, two other points of sale and three more to come within the next two months.

“The idea was to host 150 guests for the Frette 150 years’ anniversary, but the response was overwhelm-ing and we needed to accommodate much more than 150 guests,” said Loeb, adding that in total 280 people attended the celebrations.

Frette holds big bash for 150th anniversary at Burj Al ArabFrette holds big bash for 150th anniversary at Burj Al Arab

Supplier Focus• News • Analysis • Innovations • Trends

Celebrations include catwalk designs created from company’s luxury linen

EVENTS Guests were entertained with a catwalk show commissioned and created by local fashion students from Preston University in Ajman, who used Frette’s linen to create their designs.

Loeb explained: “For such an event we had to go out of the ordi-nary and come up with a unique, yet unusual and interesting idea. The idea is about how Frette linen is so fashionable with the touch of luxuri-ous lifestyle that you want to wear it.

“We are very pleased to have worked with local fashion students from Preston University, Ajman. They were very creative, dedicated and excited by the idea of working with the most prestigious brand of linen worldwide with the challenge of creating unique, haute couture pieces and outfi ts with draping only.”

She added that EF Gulf was excited about Frette’s 2010 retail spring / summer collection, which “is infl uenced and inspired by different well-known artists like the American impressionist John Singer Sargent and his sojourn to his favourite city capturing the grace and mystery of

Gasso Middle East is set to open new premises in Dubai this month to cater for increased demand for its products and services, said CEO Payam Kashani.

The company will retain its main offi ce on Sheikh Zayed Road and add a new display and storage facil-ity in front of the Financial Centre metro station.

Kashani said: “Gasso Group pro-vides A to Z solutions in the food service business, from pre-plan-ning to providing the highest qual-ity arrangement of products, them-selves of the fi nest quality, to after sales service.

Hotelier Middle East • February 2010

Design-driven hotel rooms and bed-rooms will be mocked up by experts at Interiors UAE in Abu Dhabi to present hoteliers with visual examples of future trend predictions.

Sleepotel, fi rst launched at event organiser UBM Live’s interiors exhibi-tion in the UK last year, will comprise an area of the interior design event — which is being held at ADNEC from March 29-31 — entirely dedicated to hotel design concepts.

Interiors UAE organiser Cathy Oates said: “Sleepotel was launched at our UK event dedicated to the creation of hotels and was an instant success, demonstrating how architects and de-signers can capitalise through clever design on those often under-utilised areas within a hotel”.

The conceptual rooms and suites have been designed by a variety of Eu-ropean companies, including Finland’s Oy Vallila Interior Ab, Helsinki-based Studio Arcibella and the UK’s modern hospitality designer Shaun Clarkson.

A hotel entrance designed by Lisbon-based atelier Nini Andrade Silva will also form part of Sleepotel.

Gasso Middle East expands Dubai offi ce to meet demand

Venice; the symbolist Gustav Klimt and his inspiration by the rich history and culture of the former frontier city of the Roman Empire Vienna; and the Fauvist Henri Matisse, who’s known for his inspiration by the vibrant fl ora of the provincial region including iris and fl ax patterns”.

Studio Arcibella from Helsinki is one of the com-

panies presenting a hotel bedroom concept.

“We have opened this premises as an answer to the large demand from our customers for Gasso products and services.

“Our locality has given us an incomparable competitive edge, we still wanted to have more and quicker availability for our custom-ers, not only for the large-scale proj-ects, but also for retail sales as well,” explained Kashani.

After the introduction of Gasso Europe and Gasso Middle East by Gasso Group over the past decade, Gasso North America is planned to launch in summer 2010 in Canada, added Kashani.

Kashani: Gasso Middle East’s extended premises in

Dubai will enable increased availability of products .

SLEEPOTEL TO LAUNCH AT INTERIORS UAE SHOW

Students from Preston University in Ajman created

catwalk-worthy outfi ts using Frette luxury bed linen.

SUPP

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Professional Laundry Equipment Trading division manager Sreejith Narendran reveals the breakthroughs in laundry technology, from energy-effi cient products to handy space savers

The latest in laundries What are some of the new trends in

the world of laundry?The focus of laundries has been con-sistently shifting from low capi-tal costs towards more energy-effi -cient systems, as well as automated solutions to keep up with the highly demanding marketplace. As con-sultants for industrial laundries, we now have more enquiries on Con-tinuous Batch Washing (CBW) sys-tems, steamless laundry concepts and water recycling systems.

We are installing for the fi rst time in the region a water recycling system that recovers upto 95% of the total water used, with advanced systems like microceramic fi ltration combined with reverse osmosis. In such a recov-ery rate, only solid wastes with mois-ture content goes out of the system.

Water is expensive in the region and more critical is the issue of effl u-ent discharge. In most places, central sewer networks are not available and even if they are, very few permit dis-charge of laundry effl uent. Success-ful water recycling has been a dream as reliable systems are expensive, but we have been successful in bringing the technology to this region.

Gas head systems, on the other hand, are a major breakthrough in laundry facilities. With the advent of direct gas heating technology, steam boilers and their expensive pipe network are eliminated and gas connections are given directly to the machines. This saves millions of dir-hams in capital investment and also provides highly effi cient machines as there is no energy lost in transit like in steam-heated systems. Gas is the future as it is a cleaner fuel and more-over, this system eliminates the heat emission in laundries from the steam, making the laundry a better place to work — another environmental friendly development.

What new technologies help make the laundry process more effi cient?Other new technological develop-ments include automatic sorting and cloakroom systems for hotel uni-forms, which reduce the manpower requirement by more than 90% in most cases and also provide manage-ment information systems (MIS) to the housekeeper. The uniform order-ing process is also automated. This can be very advanced, with staff hav-ing to only drop off their soiled gar-ments in a designated bin.

Using RFID reader technology, the garments are entered into the system and it goes for the laundry process. On its return, the operator

only has to hang all garments onto a slowly moving conveyor. An RFID reader attached automatically sorts and transports the garment to a stor-age conveyor for collection.

How has hotels asking guests if they want their linen and towels cleaned affected the trade?The expected reduction in linen is yet to be realised though it is happen-ing at a slow rate. The best part of this exercise is that the general level of awareness among the customers has increased and we see less abused linen these days. Guests using the sheets to polish shoes and wipe cos-metics and food wastes has reduced.

Is there a difference in what a small, medium and large hotel should be looking for in their laundry equipment?Any laundry load is divided between bed, bath, F&B, uniform and valet loads. This mix varies between hotels depending upon their stan-dards of linen change and type of speciality. For example, resort hotels have a very high proportion of tow-els compared to city hotels. In bed and bath, higher capacity machines are preferred owing to the economy in operations as the loads are of the same type every time. The design of the machines also changes with the increase in capacity. For example, up to a 100kg per cycle, open pocket design machines can be effi cient but beyond that capacity, divided cyl-inder machines are recommended. This is because, in open pockets, linen tends to get entangled forming a ball making it diffi cult for the oper-ator to separate after washing. With the constant twists and stretches inside the drum, linen and towels also get torn apart. In divided cylin-der models, however, the same load is divided between different com-partments in the same drum.

What do you think the future has in store for laundry equipment?The future looks promising for laun-dry suppliers who invest time and resources in identifying energy sav-ing and automated solutions and customising them for this region’s challenges. However, the time has gone when any trader could iden-tify a brand and start selling laun-dry equipment to hotels and laun-dries. Offering consultancy services to new prospects and processing re-engineering studies to existing plants has put us in a very comfortable posi-tion in the marketplace and we are enjoying a busy season with more to follow. This has become a very speci-alised and competitive industry and only the fi ttest shall survive. HMEHME

Q&A

WE ARE INSTALLING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE REGION A WATER RECYCLING SYSTEM THAT RECOVERS UPTO 95% OF THE TOTAL WATER USED BY THE LAUNDRY

Narendran: Gas head systems are the future for laundries, eliminating heat emissions caused by steam.

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Lamb Weston has been sup-plying industry kitchens with prepared products and frozen potato items for more

than 60 years.The company, which is currently

focusing on the Middle East hospi-tality sector as one of its key markets for growth, reported a relatively successful 2009 despite the global fi nancial downturn, and is prepar-ing for another year of continued growth in 2010.

Describing the fi rm as “the potato industry’s leader in innovation”, area sales manager for the UAE Sajju Balan claims the food manu-facturer offers kitchens across the region “consistent quality through-out the year”.

The Dutch company, which began trading in 1950, is now a global food industry player with a range of French fries, appetizers and prepared food products available to its food service customers.

Balan notes: “We design products specifi cally for each of the various channels and segments within the food service industry.”

One of the fi rm’s more recent innovations, Stealth Fries, comes

with an extended hold time and another product, My Fries, has proved popular as it offers chefs a reduced-calorie food item.

“These two products have per-formed well within the hotel envi-ronment,” comments Balan.

Another of Lamb Weston’s recent additions to its Middle East port-folio, Sweet Potato Fries, has long been “sought after” in the North American market, according to

Balan, explaining why it has now been launched in the region.

CLIENT RELATIONSHIPSDespite the diffi culties presented by the global fi nancial crisis, Balan says that due to the nature of the company’s products it has “not been as affected by the current fi nancial crisis as others may have been”.

He adds “Lamb Weston is focus-ing on the international markets with the main focus on the Middle East. Currently we have surpassed all our expectations relative to mar-ket penetration and expect that trend to continue as our customer partners gain further experience with our products and service.”

The importance of maintaining solid relationships with its clients has been pivotal to the success of the company in the UAE, continues Balan. “Obviously a good relation-ship with clients is the key to mutual success,” he refl ects.

“Lamb Weston prides itself on its close personal relationships with

COMPANY PROFILE

UAE-based Lamb Weston sales manager Sajju Balan says that the Dutch fi rm’s close working relationship with its hospitality clients has played a key role in its success in the Middle East

Dutch dynamism

COMPANY: Lamb Weston/Meijer ESTABLISHED: 1950 TEL: +31 113 394 955 FAX: +31 113 394 257 EMAIL: [email protected]: www.lambweston.com

COMPANY INFO

Sajju Balan has worked for a variety of F&B-related companies during his 15 years in Dubai.

Starting his career in the emirate with an airlines catering company, four years later he moved on to the food service department of one of the region’s largest FMCG distribution companies.

Nine years on and Balan took up the opportunity to join Lamb Weston as its area sales manager responsible for the UAE’s food service and retail markets.

ABOUT LAMB WESTON’S SALES MANAGER

all its clients; a good relationship is based on an understanding of our client’s business and operations.

“Our goal is to assist in solving problems and presenting opportu-nities,” he adds.

Balan points to the success of the sales teams at Lamb Weston, who work closely with the relevant departments of hotels, as one of the company’s key business attributes.

“We offer them the right solutions for their establishment full stop,” he asserts. “This involves extensive product testing together with the chefs in order to ensure that they use the right product throughout their operation,” adds Balan. HMEHME

Stealth Fries by Lamb Weston.

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Not only is The Monarch Suite at The Monarch Dubai the Middle East’s largest suite for sale at 1130m², it also holds the

title of World’s Leading Suite for the second consecutive year as awarded by the World Travel Awards.

Yet despite these accolades, the suite — which was designed and proj-ect managed by Ròya International — remains one of Dubai’s best kept secrets. Hotelier Middle East decided it was time we got an exclusive tour of the suite — and a taste for luxury.

Located on the 32nd and 33rd fl oors of the hotel — and accessible only with a special key card — the suite is spread across two fl oors. This is a major asset, says The Monarch Dubai executive assistant manager Bertrand Margerie, because it means guests can keep one area private for their family and one area public for business and entertaining.

The overall feeling upon enter-ing the suite is one of immense space, calm, relaxation and luxury. Although there are vibrant fabrics and striking lighting, there is none of the gaudy opulence you might expect in the region’s biggest suite.

Margerie explains why. “It was designed as a private apartment for the owner, however, he considered the potential of money from that posi-tioning and unique setting at number one Sheikh Zayed Road [and decided] to change the destination of the suite and leave it for rent.”

He says that while there are a lot of Arabian infl uences, it is a very peace-ful and moderate design, in keeping with the ambience throughout the hotel. “Our typical guests are indi-viduals with very high incomes, com-

Seal the dealHotelier Middle East fi nds out exactly what is on offer for AED 50,000 per night at “the world’s best suite”, located at number one Sheikh Zayed Road at The Monarch Dubai. It’s time we started saving...

The striking chandelier in the fi rst majlis — a venue one suspects hosts the signing of many major multi-million deals — was designed by Preciosa.

CENTREPIECEFITTED OUT pany CEOs, directors, owners and

royalty”, continues Margerie. “I would say we have two very reg-

ular customers and most people who come here come on business, and the people who tend to book it once tend to come back,” he says.

Currently, the suite is booked “an average of fi ve to six times a month” with the longest stay being a full week,” says Margerie.

People return because of the space and the service, he adds.

“It’s a mix between outside and inside. It is very vast. I have always associated volume and space with luxury. Its not out priced as well in my opinion – the net price is more or less AED 50,000 (US $13,613) a night, if you go back to places like Paris, Cannes, London, New York, there would be very expensive suites with much less volume and space inside.”

Still, Margerie admits they are “charging big bucks” and as a result, the guests must be treated with the utmost respect.

“You are not going to fi nd so many people who are going to pay AED 50,000 ($13,613) for a one-night stay so you want to really make sure they are coming back and we seem to have the proper attitude with them because these people are doing so,” he says

And of the fact the suite seems to keep a quiet profi le? Well that is quite deliberate, says Margerie.

The hotel has only used The Mon-arch Suite as a venue to hold three events itself and it has only recently been opened for very high profi le product launches, the fi rst of which was De Beers.

“I think the secret that is going round the place — the less it has been seen the more it will be looked after and people want to discover it — well, if you want to discover it, you have to book it,” says Margerie. HMEHME

The Monarch Suite even features a ‘music room’ and the sound system throughout the suite was supplied by Bang & Olufsen.

LISTEN UP

SUPPLIERS81


Various sculptures and pieces of artwork decorate The Monarch Suite. These vases and paintings caught Hotelier’s eye.

EYE CATCHERS

The private cinema features a 103inch TV screen from Panasonic — the largest one currently available on the market.

SQUARE EYES

The stunning bath tub and walk-in shower in the master bedroom were supplied by Villeroy & Boch.

BATH TIME

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There are two styles of robe to choose from, designed by Michele Nicoli.

Men’s toiletries are supplied by Ermenegildo Zegna while ladies can use products from Salvatore Ferragarno.

COSY UP

GET FRESH

The outdoor area with pool, BBQ and 270˚ views of Sheikh Zayed Road is one of The Monarch Dubai executive assistant manager Bertrand Margerie’ s favourite features of the vast suite.

TERRACE TIME The light, airy master bedroom features bed covers and duvets from Mühldorfer GmbH & Co. KG.

BED HEAD

Guests can order room service from any of The Monarch Dubai’s outlets and have a complete dining experience in the suite. Silverware was supplied by Christofl e with china by Bernardaud.

DINE IN

The relaxation area adjoins the terrace with views across Dubai. For the more athletic, fi tness equipment can also be provided.

SPA SUITE

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Uniform designers and suppliers explain why their main aim is to dress your teams to refl ect your hotel’s image and highlight the common mistakes that could stop your staff from shining

Uniform appeal

Emile Rassam — BeirutTel: +961 (0)5 451 732 Email: [email protected]: www.emilerassam.com

Emile Rassam Trading — DubaiTel: +971 (0)4 432 8563Email: [email protected]: www.emilerassam.com

ESN — KuwaitTel: +965 2471 0122Email: [email protected]: www.emilerassam.com

EMILE RASSAM


For Elie Rassam, managing director of Emile Rassam, uniform is a word that doesn’t even come into the equation when partnering with hotel companies — instead, the approach is to design wardrobes to refl ect the hotel’s image. And with 60 years in the business, this focus is clearly a successful one.

Rassam explains: “Our approach is simple, we design wardrobes. Uniform is a word we try not to use, the way hotels today avoid calling their associates ‘staff’.

“The value of designing a wardrobe is that in essence it’s a refl ection of the hotel’s image. I like to think of it as the way that an actor goes to wardrobe before going on stage to assume their part — an associate dresses the same way before their performance.”

TOP DESIGN TIPS

CONTACT

1.Keep it simple — try to work with one unique idea and then work it into all areas of the hotel; this builds the identity and most importantly puts guests at ease as they do not struggle to identify associates.

2. Try to always keep in mind the nationality of your associates — skin tone and height play a big part in the wardrobe’s success.

Rassam says that themed wardrobes in hotels is a trend that has been dominant for fi ve years and while he expects this to continue, Rassam observes: “Personally, I feel it is becoming more diffi cult to really identify the theme of certain projects, as they seem to be an accumulation of many others”.

“If you want your wardrobe to be unique you need to challenge the designer and dare to be different,” says Rassam.

As a result, he says “innovation is really the name of the game”.

“We are now able to manufacture fabrics that are specifi c to the hotel as part of their objective to create a unique wardrobe,” says Rassam.

However, he maintains that despite the fact every hotel now wants to design its own

wardrobe with a unique look to stand out from the rest, it is important to exercise some caution with creativity.

“If it isn’t managed well, [it] can result in a complete disaster, no harmony in the hotel and a wardrobe that simply shouts at the interiors,” observes Rassam.

He also points out that the most challenging uniforms to design are those for the door service staff — doormen, bell boys and valets.

“These positions distinguish the hotel and set the stage for the other positions,” says Rassam.

So what hotels have the best wardrobes? “This is a very diffi cult question to answer, there are so many to choose from, but my personal preference are the more classic wardrobes of Four Seasons and Le Gray,” says Rassam.

PRODUCTS85


For more information about Hotelier Middle East suppliers contact [email protected] +971 (0)4 435 6274. For distributor details see page 100.

One issue hotel uniform designers are very clear upon is the vital need for garments to represent the vision of the hotel they are created for.

Feizal Virani, head designer and head of Hotel Division Uniforms for Dream Uniforms, says that his approach is to give an “individual designer look and create branding for the hotel and give it its uniqueness”.

He says that uniforms are becoming more individual and less formal, so it is hard to pinpoint specifi c trends, but that the biggest concern is when the hotel operator has no regard for the uniforms — especially when so much has been invested in interior design.

“I feel back of the house to them is not important and a lot of times they forget the ethnicity of the staff when designing the

FAVOURITE UNIFORMSGrosvenor House Dubai for elegant and

modern uniforms.Raffl es Dubai for fusion with great style.InterContinental Dubai Festival City for

new and contemporary style.

uniforms,” something also noted by Elie Rassam.Also like Rassam, Virani says that the major

challenge for hotels is to “give the front offi ce the wow factor”.

“The uniforms should be unique in style but practical and represent the vision of the hotel. I feel the best way [to achieve this] is to work with the designers and general manager to get a total understanding of the look, then to feel free to express imagination. Working with a ‘football team’ of staff becomes very confusing and the directions are all varied,” continues Virani.

Best sellers for Dream Uniforms are embroidered jackets with Arabic motifs “for a cultural feel” says Virani, while new products from the company comprise “fusion dressing, modern and contemporary” looks.

Dream Uniforms LLCTel: +971 4 334 0494Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

CONTACT

DREAM UNIFORMS

Dream Uniforms head designer Feizel Virani.


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EuroCave is specialised in maturing and serving wine for over 30 years. We have

developed advanced products, in order to offer ergonomic and reliable wine storage

solutions, which provide high quality wine service at an ideal serving temperature, in

line with the traditions of the greatest sommeliers.

Because serving wine should be a pleasure, EuroCave has created Sowine Professional - a winebar which can store 14 bottles (including 8 bottles which have been open for more than 10 days) at an ideal serving temperature. Making it easier for you to present and serve the bottle directly at your customer’s table.

Dual Zone is a 2-temperature wine cabinet, which allows you to store your red and white or rosé wines at an ideal serving temperature in two separate compartments, the temperatures of which are set independently.

The most prestigious hotels choose EuroCave, what about you ?

UAE CONTACT: CLASSIC FINE FOODS

Tel: +971 6 534 4554maxime@classicfi nefoods.ae

OUTSIDE UAE CONTACT: EUROCAVE

Tel: +33 6 07 66 80 [email protected]

PRODUCTS87


For more information about Hotelier Middle East suppliers contact [email protected] or +971 (0)4 435 6272.For distributor details see page 100.

Simon Jersey has been supplying hotel uniforms for the past 39 years, with A.Ronai LLC exclusively distributing the range in the Middle East for 29 years.

A.Ronai LLC design and production manager David Sprakes says that over the past 18 months, he has seen “a move to simpler styles and more neutral colour palettes”.

“For the most part I think this will continue as the number of properties with a more minimal, contemporary interior design open in the region,” comments Sprakes.

Working alongside A.Ronai managing director Gavin Dodd, Sprakes says the company focuses on providing uniforms that are practical as well as being aesthetically pleasing.

“Every customer is different — some have a very clear image of what they would like, some have none at all. We like to give them options, which can then be distilled into the ‘fi nal’ product,” says Sprakes.

“There are very few ‘rights’ or ‘wrongs’ in design — it’s all down to taste, so by working closely with the customer, giving them the benefi t of the knowledge and expertise that we have gained over the years, taking their ideas and ours and combining all that to produce a uniform that is not only practical, but aesthetically pleasing, is our approach,” he continues.

“We also consider the practicalities of future demand and supply. The balance of available Simon Jersey catalogue stock items with bespoke pieces helps us to ensure that when a customer needs to place a small re-order after roll-out, we can supply with ease.”

A common mistake in the industry, says Sprakes, is when hotels try to “‘re-invent the wheel’ in the name of originality”.

“The reason why classic garments work is that they are tried and tested. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t fi ne-tune a design to suit your venue, but you should look at what works and use that as your starting point. A lot of hotels also use too many colours in their uniforms, which just results in the uniform looking disjointed and visually messy,” he says.

Sprakes adds that poor design is “a shame when so many properties here have exceptional architecture and interior design, yet the uniforms don’t embrace that cutting-edge spirit”.

“I wouldn’t like to point the fi nger at any one particular hotel, but there is such a homogenised look to a lot of uniforms here — too many round neck waistcoats with embroidery! It’s been done so often it no longer looks special,” says Sprakes.

The new Simon Jersey catalogue is available from this month, offering the company’s best sellers — such as the poly/wool/lycra suiting — and new styles and colourways in all of the ranges, such as suiting, bar and banqueting, kitchen, spa and accessories.

FAVOURITE UNIFORMS“We are very proud of the hotel uniforms that we have designed and supplied, in particular Media Rotana in Dubai and Radisson Blu and Park Inn on Yas Island. All three show how classic styles can be combined with more trend-led pieces to produce good-looking yet practical uniforms,” says Sprakes.

A.RONAI LLCTel: +971 4 341 4409Email: [email protected]: www.ronai.co.uk

CONTACT

SIMON JERSEY

A.Ronai design & production manager David Sprakes.

A.Ronai managing director Gavin Dodd.

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This month Hotelier rounds up the latest products to keep your laundry running effi ciently

Product guide: Laundry


BRAND VARIETYProtek FZE is a specialist laun-dry trading organisation based in Jebel Ali Free Zone.

The company deals mainly in laundry equipment, spare parts, hangers and consumables required for a laundry.

It supplies a variety of brands including: Cissell, Unimac and Speed Queen washers and dry-ers manufactured by Alliance Laundry Systems; Forenta laundry and dry cleaning fi nish-ing equipment; Thermopatch labelling machines and con-sumables, A.L. Wilson laundry chemicals; Ressilo pads and cov-ers; and Protek wire hangers.

NO BARRIERSSpecialist laundry equipment manufac-turer Danube International has intro-duced several new products.

The company has expanded its range of barrier washers, introducing the barrier concept into 16 and 22kg machines with a compact footprint.

The company’s latest Pullman bar-rier washers have an excellent mechani-

cal action to produce a high quality result while both the drum and the basket are designed to minimise water use, which in turn saves energy as there is less water to heat. High extraction rates reduce the time needed in the dryers, thus saving energy, and the frequency-controlled motors also contribute to energy savings.

Danube also manufacturers a range of dryer-ironers and tumble dryers.

DANUBE INTERNATIONALWeb: www.danube-international.com

NEXT GENERATIONGeneration 4000 equipment from Elec-trolux Professional products is designed “to meet the needs of modern life with a clear eye to the environment”.

The washer extractors, tumble dry-ers, ironers and barrier washers in the Generation 4000 range can be custom-ized in three main areas – cost, time and performance. This is achieved through the Compass Control® and the Wash Triangle technologies.

Among the newest products, the recently launched washer-dryer enables customers to have double func-tions in one machine, optimising the use of space and time. The innovative FFS (feeding-folding-stacking) ironer is sim-ple to operate and assures great perfor-mances while being very effi cient. The “heat pump” dryer makes the best of the technology to reduce consumption and it can be installed everywhere as it does not require an exhaust.

Electrolux Laundry SystemsTel: +971 4 351 4700Email: [email protected]: www.laundrysystems.elec-trolux.com

FULL SERVICE Solarco Equipments is a kitchen and laundry contractor based in the UAE that has distinguished itself in offering the highest levels of expertise and professionalism to its extensive list of local and regional clients.

With clients ranging from hotels to catering companies and villas to palaces, Solarco Equip-ment supplies products including washer extractors, tumble dryers, dry-cleaning machines, fi nishing equipment, trolleys, sinks and uniform conveyors.

The company’s best sellers include Braun, Electrolux Laun-dry Systems, Forenta, Renzacci, Camptel, Danube and Meese.

Solarco Equipments offers design, procurement, installation and maintenance services.

Solarco EquipmentsTel: +971 4 885 6626Email: [email protected]

PROTEK FZETel: +971 4 8875200Fax: +971 4 8875210Email: [email protected] Web: www.protekgulf.com


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Each month Hotelier Middle East showcases a selection of the newest products to hit the market

Products: pick of the month


SURROUND SOUNDFeonic F Series Drives is a new audio solution designed to convert surfaces such as glass and wood into audio speakers. These small devices, which can be hidden to make the source of the sound invisible, can be used to bring inani-mate objects — wall paintings and mirrors for example — to life.

It is a cost-effective solution, with one drive said to replace fi ve to six speak-ers. The drives are produced by Feonic Technology in the UK and supplied in the Middle East by MindCo Middle East FZE. Targeting the hospitality industry specifi cally, MindCo Middle East will offer special modules for hotel rooms, bathrooms, gyms, bars and restaurants.

UNIVERSAL CHARGERTeleadapt has launched an affordable, universal mobile phone charger designed specifi cally for hotels.

ChargeHub is a compact mobile device charging station equipped with 12 different connectors, making it compatible with most major mobile phone brands and more than 2000 products, according to the company.

A USB port also enables guests to charge Bluetooth headsets, game con-soles and other USB-powered devices if they have the cables.

The ChargeHub can be installed anywhere in the hotel room or built into a desk drawer.

STAINLESS SELF-SERVICEBuffetware specialist Frilich has introduced the Carafi ne Quintet provid-ing breakfast buffet guests with dripless self-service.

The elegant, spherical inspired set prevents ice water drips from carafes and bottles through the use of a centrical-crushed ice tube.

The double-walled, insulated bowl is made from polished stainless steel and keeps beverages in carafes or bottles hygienically fresh over a long period of time.

The stainless steel bowl contains fi ve practical 1.2 litre glass carafes, each with a stainless steel lid — on which Frilich offers optional inscrip-tions on request.

MINDCo Middle East FZETel: +971 50 554 8958Email: [email protected]: www.feonic.com

NEW COLLECTIONSDedon has introduced four new line extensions for 2010 — Pontoon, Sea-shell, Planters and Parasol. An extendable, universal table has been added to the Pontoon collection, the Seashell range features new bar chairs and the Planter range is now available in white. The Parasol collection is the fi rst range of sun shades created by Dedon.

DedonTel: +34 93 208 0903 Email: [email protected]: www.dedon.de

Teleadapt Tel: +971 4 3678283Email: [email protected]: www.teleadpat.com

Everstyle Trading LCCTel: +971 6 5314106Fax: +971 6 5314460Email: [email protected] Web: www.everstyleuae.com

PRODUCTS91


For more information about Hotelier Middle East suppliers contact [email protected] +971 (0)4 435 6274. For distributor details see page 100.

SHOWER POWERVilleroy & Boch has expanded its Squaro, Subway and Futurion shower solutions for 2010.

The fl at Squaro shower trays now come in eight different sizes, with the three new sizes rectangular trays of 140x90cm, 160x90cm and 180x90cm.

Villeroy & Boch has also developed four new matt colours for the Squa-ro range — amthracite, grey, brown and crème.

The company has also added three new sizes to the Subway showertray range and four new sizes to the Futurion Walk-In shower enclosures to fi t with the corresponding Squaro and Subway trays.

TOO COOLThe ‘Plug’ bucket, designed by the Andy Martin Workshop, is a stylish and modern champagne and wine cooler.

Designed as a play on the form of a bottle, the base is hand spun in pewter and polished off to a mirror fi nish.

The bucket is crafted from blown glass or can be produced in pewter to match the base.

Andy Martin WorkshopTel: +44 20 7 2292425Web: www.andymartinassociates.com

Villeroy & Boch Middle EastTel: +971 4 3642613Fax: +971 4 3688419Email: [email protected]


93

• News • Analysis • Innovations • Trends

Shangri-La launches mobile website to target smartphone usersCondensed information and simplifi ed browsing capabilities make online bookings easier

Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts has developed a mobile website to make online bookings easier for smart-phone users.

Available in English, simplifi ed Chinese and Japanese, the website is designed especially for smart-phones such as iPhone, Blackberry, HTC and Nokia Nseries.

Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts director of corporate e-business Michael Leong said that the web-site had been launched to “take care of this fast-growing group of users”.

“This phenomenon is illus-trated in the recent Mobile Inter-net Report released by Mor-gan Stanley in December 2009, which stated that mobile inter-net today is growing at a much faster pace than desktop internet (PCs+notebooks+netbooks) and that smartphones will out-ship the global desktop internet market by 2012,” said Leong.

He explained that the three main differences between the mobile website and Shangri-La’s original website were screen size, content and usability.

“The Shangri-La mobile website is specially suited to the smaller screen sizes of smartphones, while

the original Shangri-La website is more suitable for the larger screen size of a PC or notebook computer,” said Leong.

”Since the typical smartphone screen size is much smaller than a regular computer, we have made sure that the content on our mobile website is more condensed and concise compared to the regular website. This is so that mobile users can quickly get the information that they need, with-out having to scroll through pages of text and pictures,” he continued.

In terms of usability, Leong said that without a keyboard and mouse, browsing a website on a smartphone is usually more challenging to navi-gate than a computer.

“This is especially so when you try to fi ll up an online form using a virtual keyboard like in an iPhone,” explained Leong.

“That’s why we have designed our mobile website to address these challenges by having clearer navi-gation links and buttons and more

Beach Rotana invests more than a million dirhams in wireless internet

importantly, unlike other hotel companies’ mobile websites, we have eliminated the need for typing when searching for our hotels.”

The website was developed entirely in-house and is designed to

help grow online bookings – which already stand at almost 14% of all business for the company.

”As we have only recently launched this mobile website, we do not have any fi gures on the number of bookings from this mobile web-site. However, it was encouraging to see some guests booking through this mobile website within the fi rst few days of its launch,” said Leong.

He added that offering the mobile

website in just three languages was “a question of balancing market need and ROI”.

“We feel that these three lan-guages are suffi cient to cover most of our consumers’ needs today. We will, however, continue to evaluate this on a regular basis to see if more language options could be added as our customer base increases world-wide annually,” said Leong.

Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi has invested AED 1.2 million (US $326,752) in providing wireless connectivity in all its rooms, restau-rants and public areas.

Previously, it was only available in public areas and restaurants with guests having to rely on a wired con-nection in room.

Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi gen-eral manager Moritz Klein said:

“Wireless internet is now common all over the world and our guests today expect seamless connectivity throughout the hotel. At the same time, the wireless infrastructure will allow us to implement new administration applications useful to the operation”.

Over a two-month period, Beach Rotana worked with wireless sys-tems provider Aruba to install the

Shangri-La’s new mobile website is designed to simplify

the online booking process for users of smartphones.

Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi GM Moritz Klein.

system, which guests will have to pay to use.

“Guests will be charged as the cost of internet operating is still very expensive and at Beach Rotana, it is not included in the room rate. Nev-ertheless, if you book a Club Rotana room or suite during your stay with us, you may use complimentary wireless internet all day long at the Club Rotana Lounge,” said Klein.

TECH TALK 95


Is your booking engine easy to use?

Hoteliers today are exposed to new internet booking channels on a frequent basis and often fi nd them-

selves spread thin in their efforts to effectively manage and properly yield these revenue streams.

One of the most important book-ing channels for your property that is usually overlooked is your very own website booking engine. This channel represents your most prof-itable booking channel and is the fastest growing revenue stream in the industry today. Every hotel should pay attention to this valu-able booking tool and spend the time necessary to ensure it is one of the top producers in revenue.

This year begins a period of eco-nomic recovery for our industry as a whole. The climb will not be easy but there is indeed light at the end of this long tunnel.

With this recovery it is very important that hoteliers practice proactive sales techniques now to ensure they maintain their fair share of their respective markets. Focus-ing on your most profi table booking channel is one step closer to ensuring success in the future.

Identifying the need for a web-site booking engine is obviously the easy part. Choosing and utilising the right technology among the many options available can on the other hand be more daunting. Here are a few simple guidelines you can follow that will ensure you choose the right solution for your property.

ResNet World director of operations Shane Mansell offers some simple guidelines to help you select the right technology for your in-house booking engine and therefore maximise its usage

How to choose your website booking engine

MAKE SURE YOUR BOOKING ENGINE IS VISIBLE ON EVERY PAGE OF YOUR WEBSITE

COLUMNIST

Shane Mansell has 18 years’ experience in the hospitality fi eld and currently holds the position of director of operations at ResNet World. Details: www.resnetworld.com or +971 (4) 448 7222.

1. Understand fi rst that it is your prop-erty that sells a room. Ensure that your website is rich with content and pictures that will allow you to showcase your prop-erty to potential customers. We live in a consumer world that is driven by visual stimulation that in more times than not can be the difference between securing a reservation or losing a potential customer.

2. Ensure that your website is properly marketed on the internet. Today more than ever it is vitally important that you utilise proper web marketing techniques to ensure that potential customers fi nd your property — even when they are not necessarily looking for it. There are a multitude of options available to you to assist you with web optimi-sation techniques. These can range from complete website design ser-vices that include SEO services to pay per click web advertising that will enhance your current site’s placement in search engines.

3. Make your booking engine accessi-ble on your website.Make sure your booking engine is visible on every page of your web-site. A clearly visible booking engine on every page of your website will increase your chances of receiving a booking at your property.

4. Don’t pay more than you should for your booking engine.There is always a ‘balancing act’ that takes place between quality and cost when it comes to your booking engine. As stated earlier, your prop-erty and the quality of your website are very important factors in this channel’s success. Once a guest clicks on the ‘book now’ button you want their mind already made. This translates to choosing a booking engine that visually compliments your website and is easy to navigate. If the potential customer’s mind is already made up and your booking

engine is easy to use, then the res-ervation is much more likely to be made. This means that you don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to develop or purchase an overpriced technology. Look for options that will cost a low, fi xed price per book-ing or similar and focus the majority of resources on getting customers to your site fi rst.

5. Don’t be afraid to let the experts help you with web marketing.Not everybody is an expert in web marketing techniques. There are many options available to hote-liers, at many different price levels, to assist with the web marketing process. If you feel you are lacking

in this area then fi nd a fair priced solution for your property that will ensure you maximise the revenue associated with this channel.

6. Be bookable at every step Once the potential customer is ready to book, it is crucial that they fi nd the ‘book a room’ option with ease to complete the process, otherwise they could easily venture to another site which will cost you. HMEHME

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xxxxxxxxxxx

Raffl es Dubai uses several different CRM solutions.

The concept behind customer relationship management (CRM) is nothing new for the hospitality industry. The

idea of personalising the hospital-ity experience around the individ-ual needs of your guests has long been the key to a successful opera-tion, but advancements in CRM technology have enabled hoteliers to form much closer relationships with their guests than ever before.

“CRM systems provide a holis-tic view of the customer relation-ship, including customer activities, history and preferences,” explains Chuck Schaeffer, CEO of Aplicor, a CRM provider.

“Making this information avail-able to all customer facing staff will permit each employee to speak with a consistent voice and can dramati-cally improve the response and rela-tionship with individual guests.”

By building up intimate customer profi les, it is possible to set guest room preferences in advance, offer them their favourite drink upon arrival, or even ensure that a cus-tomer’s allergy is catered for with-out the guest needing to ask.

The opportunities are endless and creating such highly-personalised

CRM

Lee Jamieson explores the latest developments in customer relationship management technology

Up Close and Personal

SaaS IS NOW THE STRONGEST CRM TREND IN THE GCC

relationships with a customer base can increase levels of customer ser-vice, encourage customer loyalty in the long-term and enable the hote-lier to create highly-targeted pro-motional campaigns.

TRACKING GUESTSRaffl es Dubai uses CRM technol-ogy to build its reputation for guest recognition and for offering tai-lored guest experiences, as director of marketing and communications, Dima Ayad explains.

“Naturally, most fi ve-star hotels abide by these core standards, but we carefully log every guest’s expe-rience and leverage that data when they return.

“To track regular guests, we use a CRM system called Raffl es Ambas-sadors. This dedicated programme entices our guests to visit us time and time again. We celebrated someone’s 50th stay at the end of 2009 — the property’s only been open for two years!”

Evidently, a robust CRM sys-tem can monetise guest data, but the technology also has a part to

play in the organisation’s strategic direction. Now that CRM technol-ogy has reached a level of maturity, business leaders can use it to imple-ment a customer-centric growth strategy. It allows them to closely monitor trends, understand cus-tomer behaviour in the long-term and more effectively measure how integral the brand’s core values are in the customer experience. In this respect, CRM can lead to stronger brand identity.

CHALLENGE OF INTEGRATIONIn order for CRM to achieve its stra-tegic potential, suppliers and devel-opers must fi nd a way to integrate the many different CRM systems currently in use.

“Hoteliers are demand-ing increased system integration between CRM systems and their legacy systems,” says Schaeffer. “Getting all customer information into a single system of record is par-amount for achieving a 360 degree customer view.”

But hospitality is a complex industry and fi nding a one-size-

Realise cost savings by moving older CRM systems to SaaS applications. In most cases, these pay-as-you-go services require no upfront investment.

Identify which channels of communication your

customers use and engage with them on those channels.

Take a multi channel approach to your CRM communications and make every customer interaction count.

Don’t underestimate the power of social media. If your guests use it, so should you.

Ensure that your CRM strategy is aligned with your brand’s core values

Conduct focus groups and assessments with loyalists to check the

effectiveness of your CRM systems and strategy.

Be analytical. CRM can be part of your growth strategy

if you take the time to closely monitor trends and understand

customer behaviour in the long-term.

Don’t let technology become a barrier

to personalised human service.

IMPROVE YOUR CRM: TOP TIPS

TECH TALK 97


Aplicor’s Schaeffer is an expert on CRM systems.Raffl es’ Dima Ayad takes a modern approach to CRM.

FLEXE

designed by martin ballendat

[email protected]

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fi ts-all solution can be problematic. Therefore, Raffl es Dubai, like many hotels, uses different CRM systems in different parts of its business: Opera is used for day-to-day CRM processing, Raffl es Ambassadors is dedicated to selected repeat guests and another system called Famous Agents is used by travel agents sup-plying the business.

But according to GuestWare vice president Mike Benjamin, using different systems is confusing.

“CRM technology has become confusing for hoteliers because so many aspects of hospitality technol-ogy involve CRM. Everything from email marketing and loyalty systems to concierge and problem resolution tools can be part of a brand’s CRM strategy. This is too much to take on all at once, so the key is to have a high-level overall CRM strategy before jumping into one specifi c technology,” says Benjamin.

NEW DEVELOPMENTSOver the past fi ve years, CRM applications have undergone a period of rapid evolution to cater for the changing needs of modern business. A key technological devel-opment has been the emergence of software as a service (SaaS). This model is highly agile and portable because the vendor supplies the service through browser interfaces from their external data centres.

SaaS has revolutionised CRM by offl oading all IT administration to the software supplier and replacing the upfront software licensing fee with a pay-as-you-go subscription structure. And according to Schaef-fer, “SaaS is now the strongest CRM trend in the GCC”.

“It has already become the highest CRM growth segment in the US and EU and now companies in the Mid-dle East are looking to capitalise on the lower costs, faster implementa-tions and simpler CRM systems delivered through the SaaS model.”

CRM SaaS companies are imple-menting data centres across the Middle East to meet this demand with locally delivered solutions. Aplicor, for example, is delivered from a data centre in Doha and additional data centres are being implemented in Dubai and Riyadh.

A NEW ERAWith new agile technology in place, the stage is set for a new era in CRM. A good CRM strategy is all about

identifying the channels of commu-nication that a guest uses and engag-ing with them through those means.

Technology has opened new channels of communication and hoteliers are becoming increasingly aware that the quality of their hos-pitality product is being judged and shaped online. “Consumers look at websites like TripAdvisor and use

TECH

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98


it to make judgments on where they will stay,” explains Ayad. “People no longer make repeat bookings within a preferred hotel chain, but rather return to a specifi c website time after time.

“The day will come when web-sites like Expedia will have a CRM strategy in place where customers can book any brand and get more value. That dynamic will change the CRM strategy of all hotel chains globally,” predicts Ayad.

Hoteliers have been keenly moni-toring the phenomenal rise in social media, which includes websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Currently, more than 300 million individuals and corporations are users of Facebook and more than 33 million people communicate on

Twitter. A recent Wall Street Jour-nal ComScore report revealed that approximately one million “tweets” (short messages on Twitter) are made per hour.

Hoteliers understand the market potential of these sites and know that huge percentages of their guests are actively using social media applications — but how do they extend their CRM strategy into that online space?

This year, US-based Libra OnDe-mand is making its fi rst moves into the Middle East. This exciting new SaaS company offers a hospitality specifi c CRM system that promises to be capable of exploiting the explo-sion in social media.

“The premise behind Libra OnDemand is to centralise and

Aplicor’s CRM business software is highly fl exible and can be confi gured to meet your unique business requirements. Users can defi ne how they view data, new fi elds can easily be added as required, and new pages can be created for industry specifi c information.

Aplicor is distributed by Optimus Technology and Telecommunica-tions in the Middle East.Tel: +971 4 2023670Email: [email protected]: www.i-optimus.com

Libra OnDemand is a SaaS application that leverages the power of Force.com, the world’s most popular on demand platform, to provide a comprehensive suite of hospitality specifi c CRM applications. The service allows hotels to communicate with guests through a number of popular social media networks including Twitter and Facebook.

Micros’ Opera Enterprise Solution (OES) provides CRM technology for independent hotels and chains that can be deployed in local, regional, and global environments. OES is powered by Oracle, a scaleable and robust database engine, and offers one of the most comprehensive CRM solutions for the hospitality industry.

GuestWare is a leading hospitality industry CRM software solution focused on customer loyalty. The system has expanded from property based guest recognition and workfl ow management software to enterprise loyalty systems. GuestWare’s unique approach to CRM is based on having the same customer database for marketing, loyalty and service delivery.

APLICOR

Tel: +1 407 412 9296Email: [email protected]: www.libraondemand.com

LIBRA ONDEMAND

OPERA GUESTWARE

OES is distributed by Key Information Technology in the Middle East.Tel: +971 4 3989999Email: [email protected]: www.kit.ae

GuestWare is distributed by VisiGlobe Technology in the Middle East.Tel: +90 216 410 5787Email: [email protected]: www.visiglobe.com

consolidate all of the guest and cus-tomer information and then give hotels tools with which to engage and communicate with their cus-tomers,” explains Libra OnDemand CEO Gregory Hopkins.

“We’ve seen that hotel guests are spending a lot of time on these social media sites, and so the hotels also need to be using these channels of communication to effectively mar-ket to them.”

Libra OnDemand enables hotels to tap into online social networks and communicate with their guests in real time wherever they are. According to the company, Twit-ter is fast developing into a new kind of concierge system for hotels, allowing guests to use their smart phones to put out calls for informa-

tion and receive “tweets” back from the hotel.

While Twitter can be used for promotional and concierge pur-poses, Facebook is better suited to marketing and long-term branding because it’s a closed network.

“Communication is always evolv-ing,” observes Hopkins. “Letters moved onto fax, then onto email. I think we’re now seeing a very nat-ural shift onto social networking platforms. So, we’re not building a CRM system based on social media, but rather creating new tools that are aware of these modern techno-logical developments.

“Hoteliers should remember that social media platforms are just one of the communication channels open to them,” adds Hopkins. HMEHME

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET?

100


SUPPLIER ADDRESS BOOK Contact details: Sarah WorthTel: +971 4 435 6374 / Fax: +971 4 435 6080Email: [email protected]

UNIFORMS

Emile Rassam - BeirutTel: +961 5 451 732 Email: [email protected]: www.emilerassam.com

Emile Rassam Trading – DubaiEmail: [email protected]

ESN - KuwaitEmail: [email protected]

Dream Uniforms LLCTel: +971 4 334 0494Email: [email protected]

A.RONAI LLCTel: +971 4 341 4409Web www.ronai.co.uk

LAUNDRY EQUIPMENT

PROTEK FZETel: +971 4 8875200 Web: www.protekgulf.com

Danube InternationalWeb: www.danube-international.com

Electrolux Laundry SystemsWeb: www.laundrysystems.electrolux.com

Solarco EquipmentsEmail: [email protected]

NEW PRODUCTS

MINDCo Middle East FZETel: +971 50 554 8958

Teleadapt Web: www.teleadpat.com

DedonWeb: www.dedon.de

Villeroy & Boch Middle EastTel. +971 4 3642613E-Mail: [email protected]

Everstyle Trading LCCWeb: www.everstyleuae.com

Andy Martin Workshop Tel: +44 20 7 2292425Web: www.andymartinassociates.com

GULFOOD

Alfocan SAWeb: www.alfocan.com

Simply TomatoesWeb: www.simplytomatoes.com.au

CoppiniWeb: www.coppini.com

Back-tech Web: www.back-tech.com

Schwob AGWeb: www.schwob.ch

Bettcher Foodservice GmbhWeb: www.bettcher.com

X35 Energy Middle East FZCOWeb: www.x35energy.com

Sealed AirWeb: www.sealedair-emea.com

Scandic Food A/SWeb: www.scandic-food.dk

Spirofl owWeb: www.spirofl ow.com

United Juice Companies of AmericaWeb: www.unitedjuice.com

Chef Middle EastWeb: www.chefmiddleeast.com

ShowMaster Vertriebs GmbHWeb: www.show-master.de

Saba International CompanyWeb: www.saba-inter.com

Fawaz RefrigerationEmail: [email protected]

Al Diyafa DubaiEmail: [email protected]

Umm Suqeim Street, PO Box 18523, Dubai, UAE.

Tel: +971 (0)4 347 9003 Mob: Mark Sault +971 (0)50 454 0725

Email: [email protected] www.parasoldubai.com

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NEWDesigned For Excellence


103

• News • Trends • Analysis • Hotel listings

Layia Hospitality launches budget brand and partners with CAPM InvestmentJoint venture to enable roll out of fi ve hotels in Abu Dhabi with plans for 15 hotels within seven years

BRANDS

Layia Hospitality has introduced a budget brand with the aim of rolling out 15 new hotels in the next fi ve to seven years.

Called Day & Night Hotels, the brand is described as being “second to none” in terms of “facilities, services, comfort and security” and aimed at the “trendy, modern, young at heart and budget conscious travellers”.

Layia Hospitality CEO Daniel Haj-jar said: “The Middle East market is now mature enough to accept the con-cept of budget hotels. Thanks to the low cost carriers, the perception of bud-get airlines and budget hotels is slowly but surely spreading into the minds of the travellers. It is evolving from a curiosity factor to a serious alternative when deciding on a trip. Day & Night Hotels will be slick properties where extreme attention to details and cost effi ciency at all levels will be the raison d’être of this new brand”.

Technology will be crucial to the hotels and while Hajjar could not confi rm the specifi c systems being adopted, he revealed: “We are looking

into opportunities in self check-in and self check-out, sophisticated vending machines to offer clients items that won’t be part of the standard offerings. We are talking, as well, to international consultants on energy savings to part-ner with us at these initial stages of the Day & Night concept”.

Mohamed Al Sari, managing direc-tor of GGICO, majority partners of Layia Hospitality added: “The long term success of Day & Night Hotels relies on its offering. I mean by this; prime location, great distribution and spread, focus on online marketing and by providing the smallest details and facilities to the emerging trendy and sophisticated travellers.

“Emphasis will be put on being environmentally friendly in all our approach. But above all and probably the most challenging issue is to offer a room rate that would not exceed US $ 100 to 150,” he asserted.

“Since distribution would be one of one of our prime targets, we have started negotiations with several par-ties in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran with an objective to reach 15 Day & Night properties within the next fi ve to seven years,” said Al Sari.

JAL Hotels “full steam ahead” on Dubai property, despite bankruptcy of JAL Airlines

Hajjar: Day & Night hotels will offer rooms “far larger” than those at rival budget brands across the region.

JAL Hotels has professed confi -dence in the future of its properties in the UAE, despite its parent com-pany JAL Airlines fi ling for bank-ruptcy protection.

Speaking to Hotelier Middle East,JAL Hotels cluster public relations manager Bahia Kerrouche insisted that preparations for the Hotel JAL

EVENTS Tower Dubai property were still “full steam ahead”.

Kerrouche added that Hotel JAL Tower Dubai will “open in spring 2010 and we are currently in the sec-ond phase of our recruitment drive for the property”.

JAL Hotels currently operates the Hotel JAL Fujairah Resort & Spa, while the Hotel JAL Tower Dubai, located on Sheikh Zayed Road, is due to open this year and JAL Bah-

rain Hotel & Spa is planned for a 2011 launch.

In an offi cial announcement, Jap-anese Airlines Corporation fi led for bankruptcy citing debts of more than US $25 billion. The collapse came in response to excessive borrowing and risky investments exacerbated by reduced passenger numbers during the worldwide recession.

Planned downsizing and restruc-turing programmes will affect hun-

dreds of thousands of employees and shareholders. JAL also stated the collapse may extend to its many sub-sidiaries worldwide, under which JAL Hotels Co is placed.

Meanwhile, the future of JAL Air-lines is unclear. While the Japanese government has pledged a cash injec-tion of $10 billion to reduce its debts, negotiations have begun with vari-ous US air carriers including Delta Air Lines and American Airlines.

Layia has already secured a partner in Abu Dhabi to facilitate the roll out of fi ve Day & Night Hotels.

CAPM Investment has concluded an MOU agreement with Layia Hos-pitality to form a JV hotel management company co-owned by the two parties.

When asked about the challenge of operating fi ve hotels of the new brand in one emirate, Hajjar said: “Abu Dhabi is very large. It constitutes about 86% of the size of the UAE. Several projects have been announced away from the city centre of Abu Dhabi. Therefore, the opportunities are concrete. Our part-ners at CAPM Investment are looking

at various opportunities not only in the fascinating city centre of Abu Dhabi but in other areas too”.

With regard to competitor brands, such as Premier Inn and Holiday Inn Express, Hajjar added: “These two companies tend to offer the basics in a basic format too. At Day & Night, the rooms will be far larger and the customers will have the true feeling of staying in a very fi ne environment.

“To use a term that I have said many times in the past, we are aiming at offering the Rolls Royce of the budget brands fl irting very closely with the four-star brands”.


104IN

VEST

OR

PRICE (US $) CHANGE (%) PRICE (US $) CHANGE (%)

BX Blackstone Group (NYSE) 12.73 -4 CHH Choice Hotels International (NYSE) 32.15 -2.5

MAR Marriott International (NYSE) 26.88 -4.6 KHI Kingdom Hotels (LSE) 3.30 -0.3

IHG InterContinental Hotels Group (NYSE) 14.95 3.9 REZT Rezidor Hotel Group (SSE) 27.80 29.3

HOT Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (NYSE) 34.92 -5.4 LHO LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE) 21.07 0.9

WYN Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE) 21.49 1.9 AC Accor (PSE) 36.48 -4.4

STOCK WATCH — JANUARY

Notes: Relevant exchanges are indicated in brackets: New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), London Stock Exchange (LSE), Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE), Paris Stock Exchange (PSE). Quotes sourced from euroland.com, londonstockexchange.com and nyse.com. Figures for January are based on quotes from December 21, 2009 compared with January 27, 2010.

For a list of upcoming properties, see www.hoteliermiddleeast.com. To update your company’s list, contact [email protected]

KHI reports 11% revPAR decline in 2009Figures showed signs of improvements in the fourth quarter last year

REAL ESTATE

Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI), the international hotel and resort company owned by His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, reported an 11% decline in revPAR in 2009 when compared to the previous year.

Performance in Q4 2009 did show signs of improvement, increasing 3% globally in the three months to December 31, compared to the same

period in 2008. However, in the Middle East region, KHI’s RevPAR slumped 7% in the quarter, the com-pany said in a statement.

KHI said that “the Mövenpick Beirut and El Quseir, together with the Four Seasons Damascus, all experienced RevPAR rises but were offset by continued signifi cant falls at the Mövenpick Dubai”.

This year, KHI is scheduled to complete the construction of the Four Seasons Private Residences at Marrakech in Morocco in the fi rst

Saudi group acquires 10% Six Senses stake Sheikh Sultan bags AHIC Leadership Award

KHI opened Four Seasons Beirut on Janaury 10 and

will open a Four Seasons in Marrakech later this year.

HH Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan.

Miami-based Saudi entrepreneur Laith Pharaon has acquired a 10% stake in Six Senses Mauritius, the management arm of Six Senses Resorts & Spas.

Pharaon serves as principal for his group, which has previously served as a shareholder of Hyatt Hotels and owned several Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts properties.

Six Senses chairman and CEO Sonu Shivdasani said: “I am person-ally excited to have an investor and partner such as Laith Pharaon and his father Dr. Ghaith Pharaon.

“They have an impeccable back-ground in the high-end hospitality business having been signifi cant

HH Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan has been named winner of the 2010 Leadership Award ahead of the Arabian Hotel Investment Con-ference (AHIC) in May.

He was nominated for the award, which was last year won by Dubai World chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, by the 50-strong panel of industry leaders on the AHIC Advi-sory Board.

Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, holds several key roles in the fi elds of hospitality, tour-ism, arts and culture.

Most notably, he was appointed chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) on its establish-

ACQUISITION PEOPLEshareholders of Hyatt and owners of several Four Season Hotels prop-erties, and other luxury-branded properties in the past.

“Their track record of great successes will contribute signifi -cantly to the future development of Six Senses, adding strength and vibrancy to the group”.

There is the option for an addi-tional 15% stake to be acquired by Pharaon, based on the achievement of certain milestones.

Pharaon said: “I am very excited to be part of Six Senses. By bring-ing hotel development experience to the management side of Six Senses, I believe this is a win-win situation for both of us”.

Six Senses was founded in 1995 and currently operates 16 resorts.

ment in September 2004 and has since steered its development.

He is also chairman of Tourism Development & Investment Com-pany, chairman of the Abu Dubai Authority for Culture & Heritage and chairman of Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company.

quarter 2010 and the hotel part of the project in late 2010.

“We have presold 40 of the 43 units in Marrakech and expect to commence recognizing these sales in the fi rst half of 2010,” said the statement.

Also in the region, KHI recently opened The Four Seasons Hotel, Beirut on January 10, 2010.

The company added that net debt at December 31 was US $173 mil-lion, with cash balances totaling $351 million.

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HE Saif Mohamed Al Hajeri, Chairman, ABU DHABI NATIONAL HOTELS

Announcing the AHIC 2010 LeadershipAward WinnerHE Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al NahyanChairman, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority; Tourism Development & Investment Company

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106


Last month I wrote about Dubai and the ridiculous over-reaction by the world media towards its economic

woes. The storm has somewhat sub-sided — although the media still appears to enjoy putting the boot in whenever it sees the opportunity, as shown by a recent article in The Times which insisted that the open-ing of Burj Khalifa was an example of how, according to the headline, “Towering ambition always comes before a fall” (December 31, 2009, www.timesonline.co.uk).

The apparent rebuke by the jour-nalist and sub-editors towards hav-ing vision and ambition is bizarre (though its analysis of the historic parallels between economic trou-bles and tall building completion interesting), but its conclusion is also telling, as it confi dently tells its readers that “the new city of Mas-dar, now being built in Abu Dhabi as a carbon-neutral eco-city (call it the green suburb of Babel), will stand as an architectural rebuke to the great tower of hubris next door”.

The last 12 to 18 months has seen Abu Dhabi’s international profi le rise as quickly as the Burj Dubai, or should I say Burj Khalifa. For any-one that has worked in the region this comes as no surprise — after all, it is the largest emirate and home to the national capital (something that

has yet to be grasped by many) and as a tourism destination has always had plenty to offer.

SECURE STATISTICSAt the most basic level people are now able to easily get to Abu Dhabi, they have a place to stay and the industry is feeling confi dent. This was demonstrated by various sta-tistics given out by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) at its fi rst annual industry forum in Octo-ber 2009; the international airport is now directly linked with 69 des-tinations, served by 32 airlines, and average occupancy rates for July 2008-October 2009 were still one of the world’s highest, at a healthy 77%. Signifi cant additional room stock is being made available with approximately 10,000 rooms under construction to be delivered by the end of 2010 (based on Q3 2009 fi g-

ures), with a further 7000 under construction to come on line in 2011.

All of this meant that in a compar-ative confi dence survey by ADTA, based on the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) methodology for its global confi -dence index, questioning 120 local industry stakeholders, Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry registered a con-fi dence rating of 96 – which is 39 points ahead of the UNWTO’s rat-ing for the worldwide industry for January and April in 2009.

This survey came before a num-ber of events which raised Abu Dhabi’s profi le even further, includ-ing the Football Club World Cup and, more importantly, the F1 Grand Prix race. This could have contributed to the USA’s best sell-ing travel guide, Frommer’s, listing Abu Dhabi as among its top 10 des-tinations to visit during 2010.

As the profi le of the UAE capital rises both in the region and abroad, Bench Events chairmanJonathan Worsley says he hopes the emirate receives fairer treatment than Dubai by global media

A view from London: the stage is set for Abu Dhabi’s success

I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT SUCCESS IN ABU DHABI WILL BE TO THE BENEFIT, NOT THE DETRIMENT, OF THE OTHER EMIRATES

Saadiyat Island is one of the projects being driven forward by Tourism Development & Investment Company.

ECONOMIC VISION 2030Events like this are all part of Abu Dhabi’s Economic Vision 2030, which has made tourism the cor-ner stone of its plans to drive non-oil economic growth and sets an ambi-tious target of attracting 7.9 million visitors by 2030 (compared to 1.6 million in 2008), with 74,000 hotel rooms (up from around 18,300 cur-rently). Ambitions of such magni-tude, when backed by such a large investment in tourism infrastruc-ture, provide a unique opportunity for hotel developers and investors.

Saadiyat Island is just one of the fl agship projects being driven for-ward by Tourism Development & Investment Company, which is really at the forefront of Abu Dha-bi’s tourism ambitions, and at the moment it has 13 major projects underway. This is one of the reasons that its chairman, HH Sheikh Sul-tan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, has been awarded the 2010 Leadership Award by the Arabian Hotel Invest-ment Conference 2010 (www.ara-bianconference.com/), after being selected by the Advisory Board, which is comprised of more than 40 of the most infl uential names in hos-pitality in the Middle East.

All in all the outlook is extremely bright for the emirate’s tourism plans, and I fi rmly believe that suc-cess in Abu Dhabi will be to the ben-efi t, not the detriment, of the other emirates, including Dubai — they have the chance to add a whole new type of visitor to the UAE and com-plement the existing offering.

However, given the scale of what they are aiming to achieve, I hope that any hiccups along the way do not lead the worldwide media to turn against their ambition and vision in the same way it has turned against Dubai’s. HME

COLUMNIST

108


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Bin Eid is highly specialized in Senior Level Search & Placement of Hotel / Hospitality Industry Professionals. Our clients include prominent 5 star hotels (International chains), 4 star deluxe properties and other hospitality and leisure industry establish-ments in UAE and other Gulf Countries. We are now in the process of filling in the above positions for our clients in the UAE, GCC and Other Countries.

This is your fi rst role in the hotel indus-try. Why did you want to enter this sector?Since leaving university I have been lucky enough to gain valuable expe-rience in the hospitality industry by participating in organising events at The British Open and British Grand Prix. The challenge of ensuring all operations are running smoothly, the personal interaction with the guest, ensuring all requirements are met, and the fact we can always improve, are some of the reasons that motivate me to expand my experience and develop new skills in the hotel industry.

What skills and experience will you bring from your previous role at Nuffi eld Health and Wellbeing in England?At Nuffi eld I combined a dual role of working in the sales team with shifts as duty manager and the experience I have gained from these roles I intend to deploy here in Dubai. I particularly enjoy and thrive on personal relation-ships and dealing with clients on a one to one basis. This enables me to form strong, long lasting relationships with all accounts, which is an obvious help in driving sales. I believe that one of the characteristics required in order to succeed in a competitive sales environ-ment is the ability to listen and quickly establish what the exact client needs are to be able to provide them with what they want, or to advise them on the options available. Fail-ure to do this may result in not fully delivering on all of their requirements, leading to cus-tomer dissatisfaction, which in turn runs the risk of losing future business.

What specifi c responsi-bilities will your new role entail?My position at Arabian Park Hotel will

consist of building relationships with our existing corporate client base and forming new accounts in the market. I shall also be working with local travel agencies, and I look forward to being able to develop strong working rela-tionships with all of my accounts.

One particular area that I am look-ing forward to is working with the sports management companies in Dubai. With my experience of run-ning a leisure complex, together with Arabian Park Hotel’s close proximity to many sports grounds and stadiums in Dubai, I hope to be able to encour-age sporting teams to stay with us.

How will you tackle the issues of short lead times and increased competition?We will continue to ensure that we are benchmarking ourselves closely with our competitive set,are realistic with our pricing strategy to ensure we are offering great value for money, and gain important feedback from our guests so we know what it is that makes us the right choice for them.

We need to ensure we respond to all requests straightaway, as with the shortened lead times, clients will be agreeing to the fi rst fair offer put to them. We need to ensure we are do-ing everything we can on a daily basis to make companies aware of the Ara-bian Park Hotel; in terms of guest ex-perience this relies on word of mouth, from a sales team point of view this means that our relationships with our

travel and corporate partners will be very important. We

must ensure that we are informative by provid-ing relevant informa-tion in accordance with their requirements, and that we are fl exible and

adaptable not only in terms of our of offering and

price point but also in terms of the client service that we offer. HMEHME

NEW RECRUIT

This three-star hotel in Dubai has appointed Tom Rhodes as sales manager to boost its team

www.hoteliermiddleeast.com

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RECRUITMENT AND TRAININGContact details: Sarah WorthTel: +971 04 435 6374 / Fax: +971 4 435 6080Email: [email protected]

Saudi Hotels & Resorts Co. He also holds qualifi cations in business administra-tion and human resource management and certifi cates in management training, development and leadership.

MARRIOTT PROMOTES AL SHARANI

Turki Al Sharani has been promoted from director of sales to director of sales and marketing at Riyadh Marriott. A graduate of the American Business Management School, Al Sharani has worked in sales for the past seven years, including a previous role at the InterContinental Riyadh. He then joined Riyadh Marriott as a sales manager in 2006.

NEW JOB FOR JACOBI

A new general manager has been ap-pointed at Radisson Blu Hotel, Muscat by The Rezidor Hotel Group. Michael Jacobi, a German national, studied business and hotel and catering management and has extensive experience in the hospitality industry, including a number of positions for InterContinental in Germany and the US. More recently, he was resident manager at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Doha, Qatar.

In 2008, Jacobi joined Rezidor as executive assistant manager at the Radisson Blu Hotel Kuwait, where he was responsible for hotel operations.

brand’s fl agship hotel The Address, Down-town. With two decades of experience in the worldwide hospitality industry, Olle’s operational role is to ensure the ongoing success of the hotel, which opened in Oc-tober 2008. Prior to joining The Address, Olle held an array of positions with the Hyatt Group, affording him international experience across Asia, Australia and South America.

HAJ HASSAN PROMOTED

Rotana has announced the appointment of Mohammad Haj Hassan as the new general manager of Al Bustan Rotana Dubai. Haj Hassan will be responsible for strengthening the business within the international market and maintain-ing both corporate and leisure guest relations. Having joined Rotana in 2003, he climbed the career ladder within the company, resulting in his previous role as general manager of Al Salam Rotana in Khartoum, Sudan.

AL KHOBAR WELCOMES AL ATIQ

Coral International Hotel, Al Khobar has appointed Abdul Karim Al Atiq as the new general manager. Bringing to the role more than 16 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Al Atiq has worked throughout Saudi Arabia including positions with InterContinental Hotels and

ON THE MOVE…GRAND PROMOTION

Grand Hyatt Dubai has promoted Fathi Khogaly, an Egyptian national, to hotel manager from his previous role as resident manager at the Hyatt Regency Dubai. Khogaly has worked in the UAE for more than 20 years in a variety of roles within the Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

GHALED STEPS UP AT SHANGRI-LA

Khaled Ghaleb has been promoted to hotel manager of Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai from his former position as resident man-ger of Shangri-La Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi. Ghaleb brings more than 17 years of hospitality experience to the role, having previously held various managerial positions throughout the Middle East, in-cluding director of operations at Le Royal Méridien Beach Resort and Spa.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

Emaar Hospitality Group has appointed Simeon Olle as general manager of the

CAPITAL GAIN

Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company and Hyatt International have appointed Ashwini Kumar as general manager of the Hyatt at Capital Centre.

Kumar brings to the role three decades of experience gained at hotels throughout the Middle East. Prior to taking up his new job, Kumar was hotel manager at Grand Hyatt Dubai, a position he held since 2004.

SISTER ACT

Nicoleta Cucos has joined the manage-ment team at Al Murooj Rotana Dubai as director of human resources from an equivalent role at sister property Towers Rotana Dubai. Cucos holds a Masters degree in Psychol-ogy from Trinity College Dublin as well as a qualifi cation in Hotel and Institutional Management. In her new role Cucos will manage an international team, focusing on maintaining staff satisfaction and effective employee management.


111

Tel: +971 4 3390411 / Fax: +971 4 3390668

[email protected] / www.aquaclear.ae

On-line pool water monitoring all year round

Monitor your pH and chlorine from the convenience of your PC anywhere in the world

Aquaclear Poolsquad range from France perfect for Spas, Jacuzzi’s, Plunge pools and small Resort pools

Aquaclear systems can be found in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and India

Campbell Gray Hotels to roll out Pure Gray spasSpa brand launched at Beirut property already being extended says founder and chairman

SPAS

Campbell Gray Hotels is set to roll out a spa brand called Pure Gray, com-pany chairman and founder Gordon Campbell Gray revealed in an exclu-sive interview with Hotelier Middle East during a recent visit to Dubai.

“I think we’ll put a Pure Gray [spa] into all our hotels and we’re going to develop that. We’re actually extend-ing Le Gray Beirut already,” said Campbell Gray.

He said that he was taking over a part of the building originally intended for retail to extend new hotel Le Gray — located in the smart downtown dis-trict of Beirut.

“We’re adding an Asian restaurant, an indoor screening room, a swimming pool, extending the spa and putting in ice rooms,” said Campbell Gray.

In addition, Campbell Gray plans to transform some of the 500-piece strong art collection he accrued for Le Gray Beirut into a gallery because of demand from guests to buy the work.

New recreation manager at Kempinski Ajman More awards for Mandarin Oriental Spas

Syrian national Samir Zreik heads up the recreation team at

Kempinski Hotel Ajman as he progresses his career.

Kempinski Hotel Ajman has appointed Syrian national Samir Zreik as its new recreation manager.

A hospitality professional since 1996, Zreik has previously worked in the recreation departments of Le Méridien Hotel Abu Dhabi and Coral Beach Resort in Sharjah.

Zreik said: “Working on the recre-ational offerings of one of the UAE’s foremost resort properties presents a very challenging opportunity and I look forward to an interesting start with a lot more to offer in leisure opportunities for our guests.

HOTELS AWARDS

Campbell Gray: wants to add Pure Gray spas to all the

company’s hotels, as well as creating a Gallery Gray.

Business insights for attractions, fitness, sports and spa professionals

“Everybody wants to buy art and I don’t like art for sale in hotels so I’ve decided we’re going to have a gallery/coffee shop in the hotel — it will be pieces [costing] from a few hundred to a few thousand and I’m going to col-lect it,” he explained.

So it will be called ‘Gallery Gray’ — we’re really fl ogging my name here at the moment but everyone seems to love it. It will be a pure art gallery,” said Campbell Gray.

Le Gray Beirut is a member of the Leading Small Hotels of the World.

“In addition, working with a glob-ally respected hospitality group such as Kempinski opens up an exciting new chapter in my career.”

Five Mandarin Oriental hotels have been awarded the prestigious 2009 Forbes Five Star Spa Award out of only 13 hotels worldwide.

Mandarin Oriental hotels in New York, Miami and Hong Kong, which had been awarded in previous years, were joined in 2009 by The Land-mark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong and Mandarin Oriental, Bos-ton. In addition Mandarin Oriental Washington DC was honoured as a Forbes Four Star Spa.

The company’s renowned spas have also been honoured by AsiaSpa

Magazine, and the fi rm scooped Best Wellness & Spa Group in the Asia Pacifi c Crystal Awards.

Group Director of Spa Andrew Gibson said: "We are delighted to have been honoured by so many awards, which are testament to the hard work and consistency of our spa teams around the world.

“The launch of Mandarin Orien-tal’s signature treatments and brand of products has helped to underline our spa philosophy of delivering authentic and holistic experiences. We also remain focused on provid-ing a consistent level of service excel-lence to our guests.”


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The New Year is always a great time to reassess, take stock and generally take a fresh approach to pretty much ev-

erything! However, the economy re-mains tough and no-one truly knows what this year will bring.

Everyone’s budget has been cut without exception and working smarter, not harder, is the name of the game. Effi cient and effective man-agement remains key and having the tools to be able to achieve that is vital.

I spend a huge amount of time looking for quick and relatively inex-pensive ways for spas to be able to perform to their optimum. Training is at the base of all routes, however, there are some tools on the market that I’m particularly impressed with that are easy to use, effi cient and at an incredibly low cost.

The fi rst is a tool that is barely out of the blocks, but I was familiar sev-eral years ago with an associate sys-tem developed by the same founder that worked outstandingly well for both health and safety and general performance management.

The system is called Spasmatter2 and it is an absolute snip at GBP 250 or AED 1500 (US $404). This highly

productive tool works by providing a series of simple routine checks that are carried out on a daily basis rang-ing from business management, mar-keting, human resources, health and safety and operating standards.

It educates and develops knowl-edge through usage and is a valuable source of information and reference for more junior members of the man-agement team, while at the same time providing vital checks for your busi-ness. As a manager or director, the time and effort that it takes to compile this sort of information and create a system to operate it is counter pro-ductive when these sorts of initiatives are readily available.

Using the framework that Spas-matter2 provides will help you and your team focus on the pinch points of your business and also ensure due dil-igence and increased effi ciency. The system makes it impossible to over-look the vital KPIs of your business.

The second tool I mentioned in an article last year and still believe it to be an exceptionally cost effective and hugely benefi cial tool to help you manage your business, as well as fi nd

Spa development specialist Anni Hood is based in the UK. Previously, she was group director of spas for Jumeirah Group in Dubai and is now working with Red Cashew on new spa projects.Email your views to: [email protected]

I SPEND A HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME LOOKING FOR QUICK AND RELATIVELY INEXPENSIVE WAYS FOR SPAS TO BE ABLE TO PERFORM TO THEIR OPTIMUM

and drive new business. SpaBooker is an online software system and is a division of SpaFinder, the world’s largest spa media, marketing and technology company.

As well as providing the necessary platform for operation, SpaBooker provides thousands if not millions of potential customers through its link with SpaFinder. The features of the model not only drive additional rev-enue but also enable spas to reduce labour as bookings can be so effec-tively driven online.

Cost control is also a key feature. There are ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Unlim-ited’ solutions based on the type of spa you have — from a standalone/multi-site day spa to a hotel opera-tion — and the costs associated with it are dependent on the volume driven through the model rather than there being large one-off fees/licensing. The fee is based on 0.5% of sales through the system with a cap for both versions. It is the only soft-ware solution that I am aware of that drives new customers through your doors — that alone is hugely compel-ling, particularly in this climate! HMEHME

Independent spa consultant Anni Hood highlights some cost-effective systems to enable simple and smart spa management in your facilities

Tools of the trade

COLUMNIST

Smart online solutions will put an end to

your packed paper planner.


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It was only a snapshot of US trends, but the Smith Travel Research (STR) presentation on spa performance at SpaExec

last year revealed that treatment room occupancies were down sub-stantially and revenues had reached a plateau, but that the average retail dollar per treatment had risen from US$19 to $26 in just one year.

STR vice president Jan Freitag says this indicates that consumers might be substituting at-home spa experiences for expensive treat-ments in spa facilities.

“In the light of declining treatment revenues, hotel and resort spa direc-tors have a renewed focus on retail as a crucial element to their spa’s bottom line,” she says.

Another survey, carried out by ISPA in May, focused on retail sales and the value of incentives and assis-tance provided by resource partners, and this highlighted the moves made by spas to boost retail, control inven-tory and the importance of training.

Results showed that while more than half of spas surveyed had reduced the total value of their retail inventory in Q1 compared to the pre-vious year, there was no signifi cant change in retail revenue, empha-sising the focus on moving current product inventory before bringing in new lines or additional products — and also the move to smaller, more frequent orders.

Other results indicated that cost and retail potential were vital factors when deciding on new merchandise and that many spas were loathe to bring in new products in the current fi nancial circumstances when poten-tial appeal and return on investment were uncertain — a trend to which

resource partners had responded by introducing lower price point prod-ucts, smaller size options and dis-counts on discontinued items as well as increased training.

The top fi ve products in spa retail underline this conservative approach to sales with skin care products at number one, followed by bath and body products, sun care, nail products and make-up — although more than 60% of spas surveyed did also include hair prod-ucts and apparel in their merchan-dise — while a September survey by Coyle Hospitality Group and WTS International listed the top sellers as face care (72%), face or body lotions (60%), hair care (39%), bath prod-ucts (33%), aromatherapy (30%, anti-ageing (29%), oils (20%) and massage tools (9%).

But, if there’s a plethora of goods out there designed to appeal to the spa goer, it is also evident that many spas do not observe best practices in their approach to retail — an area therapists possibly think does not lie within their remit — while spa

design itself also does not favour the retail environment.

Of course, retail itself is a science with inventory management, ROI, visual displays, marketing, budgets and research among the key ele-ments — a far cry from the cocoon of the treatment room. But, along with the feel-good factor, customers are buying in to a holistic design for liv-ing, where an oil, a cream or a lotion can work wonders far beyond the environs of the spa.

REGIONAL TRENDSWith spa becoming a vital element in the Middle East hotel industry, as well as the concurrent boom in stand-alone operations, the need to make an impact is vital for those spas that wish to rise above the crowd and signature spa concepts can help here, also stimulating retail sales, according to Peter Dowling, managing director of the House of Maria Dowling.

The company works with Puri in Thailand to develop and sup-ply spa products, providing tailor-

With the spa sector subject to increased pressure as consumers review expenditure on life’s luxuries, the expansion of spa retail opens up extra revenue streams to augment the bottom line, says Kathi Everden

The soft sellSPA RETAIL

made products that are available in smaller quantities to suit an inde-pendent spa operator.

“With more competition around, there is a need in the Middle East for spas to differentiate themselves,

Prioritise retail and make it part of the spa offering.

Set out your products with a focus on the eye-catching — and use display lighting effectively.

Think about clear labelling in order that clients can see what is available.

Encourage clients to touch, try and smell products, rather than locking them away in a cabinet.

Provide training for therapists so they can educate their clients on the virtues of each product — the soft sell, not the hard sell.

Institute role playing so that therapists can practice their selling skills and gain confi dence.

Plan, promote and market your wares to consumers.

KEY SELLING TIPSSatori Spa at Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa. Zen Spa at Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi.


LEISURE MANAGER

115

MANY SPAS DO NOT OBSERVE BEST PRAC-TICES IN THEIR APPROACH TO RETAIL

rather than take branded products,” says Dowling. “We can blend essen-tial oils to create a signature prod-uct for a spa and then can supply as needed so spas do not have to order in bulk.”

Citing a text book case of spa stimulating retail, Dowling pointed to The Palace — The Old Town, Dubai, where the company created a frangipani/ylang ylang formulation which became so popular in the spa, it was also used as a signature scent in the lobby and then developed as retail for sale in the mini bar as well as the spa.

“In addition, we have been asked for products such as oils, bath prod-ucts, lip balms etc that can be used for turndown service in-room but are essentially marketing for the spa, while another trend has been for seasonal specials — aloe vera prod-

ucts in the summer, chocolate gels or scrubs for Valentine’s Day —all of which we can provide in small quan-tities,” he said.

But, for those spas that use estab-lished products, it’s the sales skills of the therapist that often determines how big a part retail plays in turn-over — although perhaps the key element here is to establish retail sales as a vital part of post-treatment care, according to consultant Anni Hood from Red Cashew.

“The reality is that the therapist is the best equipped person in the team to make recommendations to their client on what products are best for their skin and to gain the results they are looking for; it’s not a question of becoming a sales person but fulfi lling completely their role as a therapist.”

Formerly charged with setting up Jumeirah Group’s Talise spa, Hood Bliss Spa at W Doha offers several sales incentives.

Talise Spa at Al Maha in Dubai uses its own Timeless brand plus Babor and Sodashi.

is well versed in the region’s spa practices and claims there is poten-tial for many operations to boost retail revenue.

“All spas are different but speak-ing generally, there is still a long way to go for spas to optimise their poten-tial of retail sale,” she says.

“It is vital to have a good range of products and pricing to meet every-one’s purse, and to display the mer-chandise so guests can touch, smell and test the products — the experi-ence of purchasing retail should be every bit as enjoyable as the treat-ment itself,” says Hood.

BRAND AWARENESSWhat also helps is to have a cov-eted brand; at the Bliss spa at W Hotel Doha, retail already makes up between 25 and 30% of turnover, with top fi ve products including hand and body creams, face wash and the triple oxygen mask.

Retail is displayed in a dedicated 63m² area, but spa director Lili-ana Matic says there is demand to increase this.


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a key brand and facial products among the top sellers.

“Other top products are 24-hour eye complex, revitalising eye mask and hydrating cleansing milk — therapists advise clients of the proper use of products to achieve the desired results.”

Monsod says retail in the recep-tion area is changed every fi ve weeks to ‘refresh the look and keep clients interested’, and other measures to boost sales include sales incentives for staff.

“ESPA has promotions and incen-tives year round and we have intro-duced a scheme that is target-based — we are also looking into promo-tions that will include specifi c retail items for different treatments.”

For the Emirates Hotels’ Time-less Spa brand, the opening of three spas at Dubai International Airport has opened up unique retail oppor-tunities, according to senior vice president Tony Williams.

“Retail contributes around 20% to spa turnover across the board, but there is a higher proportion at the airport spas,” he says.

“We see more impulse buys at the airport for Babor, Sodashi and Timeless brands — these are not available for retail except at spa

outlets so it becomes a place to buy; Sodashi makes up 55% of sales there,” continues William.

“People are spending more on products generally so we have set up purchasing to order in small quanti-ties, on a weekly or even daily basis, in order that product turnover is reg-ulated,” he adds.

For Williams, training and prod-uct knowledge among therapists are vital in boosting retail, with Time-less Spas opting for the ‘soft sell’ approach and letting the product quality speak for itself.

“However, we are trialling staff incentives since we have determined from a survey that most spas in Dubai now offer some sort of incen-tive,” says Williams.

INCENTIVES WORKIt’s a view strongly endorsed by Chantelle Mason, spa director at the Beach Rotana Hotel & Towers Abu Dhabi’s Zen Spa.

“We have created a competitive spirit by amending the retail com-mission system for staff to earn a higher percentage with different targets. We also have ‘products of the month’ to boost slow moving products, giving staff tips on how to sell it and offering a cash prize for the

WE HAVE CREATED A COMPETITIVE SPIRIT BY AMENDING THE RETAIL COMMISSION SYSTEM FOR STAFF TO EARN A HIGHER PERCENTAGE WITH DIFFERENT TARGET

team member that sells the most,” she says.

Mason acknowledges that this focus on retail has helped Zen Spa achieve its targets at a time when revenues are under pressure.

“In the current climate, it has been retail that has boosted our revenues to achieve targets — it has been averaging 14% (of turnover) but in October alone, it reached 28%.”

Financial priorities aside, Mason notes that a retail offering is gradu-ally becoming an essential part of a holistic spa service.

“Coming to a spa now involves more than just a massage — previ-ously the focus was just on treat-ments but now the focus has changed and training includes retail sales as well as treatments.”

For all the pampering image of spa, she says that best sellers were ones of practical use such as Aro-matherapy Associates’ muscle gel and Revive cellulite gel.

“However, we have retail on dis-play in reception, changing this regularly and offering lots of tes-ters, samples and dummy products to give clients the freedom to shop, encouraging them to touch and smell the goods,” she adds.

The fi nal element for Mason is marketing, with a monthly newslet-ter highlighting a product and treat-ment of the month.

“We can also link in seasonal pro-motions such as Christmas or Moth-ers’ Day gifts or massage oils for Val-entine’s Day,” she says. HMEHME

Skincare products

Bath and body products

Sun care

Nail products

Make-up

TOP FIVE BEST SELLERS

“I wish we had more space as we carry both Bliss and some third party products — we have a prod-ucts launch calendar and the dis-plays are changed to refl ect new merchandise,” she explains.

Matic says that sales incentives are in place for both receptionists and therapists and there is a manda-tory procedure to follow.

“Therapists after each treatment prepare a ‘basket’ of recommended products and notes on how to use these — this is then presented to the guests at reception.”

For CHI at Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort in Oman, its signature Element products are a top seller, with best selling items including bath robes, Five Element massage oils, music CDs and oil burners.

According to spa director Vanicha Phaphoom, most retail is directly related to treatments that guests experience in the spa.

“This is based on the Element product used for their treatment, pre-determined by a guest question-naire,” she says.

“We do a Sense of CHI sampler of the fi ve Element oils to help boost sales as well as CHI hampers with oils, candles and incense.”

At The Address Downtown Burj Dubai, spa manager Michael Mon-sod says spa is already contributing 12% to spa turnover, with ESPA

The Spa at The Address Downtown Burj Dubai.

Source: International Spa Association


EVEN

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February 9Business Travel & Meetings ShowLondon UKwww.businesstravelshow.co.uk

February 21Ingredients Middle EastDubai UAEwww.ingredientsme.com

February 21Restaurant & Cafe Middle EastDubaiUAEwwww .gulfood.com

March 29-31Interiors UAEAbu Dhabi, UAEwww.interiorsuae.com

April 18-21Cityscape Abu DhabiAbu DhabiUAEwww.cityscapeabudhabi.com

May 16-19Global Spa SummitIstanbulTurkeywww.globalspasummit.org

June 1-3Beautyworld Middle EastDubaiUAEwww.messefrankfurtme.com

June 13-15Cityscape JeddahJeddahSaudi Arabiawww.cityscapejeddah.com

OctoberHotelier Middle East Awards 2010DubaiUAEwww.hoteliermiddleeast.com

October 4-7Cityscape DubaiDubai, UAEwww.cityscape.ae

November 8-11World Travel MarketLondon, UKwww.wtmlondon.com

November 8-11INDEXDubai, UAEwww.indexexhibition.com

The Shanghai International Hospitality Equipment & Supply Expo (Hotelex Shanghai 2010) — one of the most important events in the Chinese hospitality market — is expected to exceed the records achieved at last year’s show.

In 2009 the event — held at Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC) — reached 60,000m² with 751 exhibitors from 19 countries participating, including 2200m² of space dedicated to overseas exhibitors. The four-day show received 41,227 visitors, of which almost 10% came from overseas — which was a stable

turnout compared with the previous year in spite of the global economic crisis.

A highlight of the 2010 show is Coffee & Tea China 2010, which is expected to cover 5000m² of exhibition space with close to 100 companies already confi rming their attendance including international brands such as Fetco, Catamona, UCC, Illy, Lavazza, Astoria, WEGA, Malongo, WMF, Davinci and Monin.

Coffee & Tea China 2010 will feature the eighth China Barista Championship, which will see 12 fi nalists going head to head for the title.

February 21-24, 2010GULFOOD 2010DubaiUAEwww.gulfood.com

March 1-3, 2010GIBTMAbu Dhabi, UAEwww.gibtm.com

May 1-3, 2010Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) 2010Dubai, UAE www.arabianconference.com

May 4-7, 2010Arabian Travel Market (ATM)DubaiUAEwww.arabiantravelmarket.com

May 7-10, 2010HOTEC Muscat, Omanwww.mcleaneventsinternational.com/events/HotecMiddleEast2010

May 18-20, 2010The Hotel Show Dubai, UAEwww.thehotelshow.com

FEATURED EVENT

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A round-up of industry events here and abroad coming up in the next12 months

March 29 - April 1 HOTELEX

SHANGHAI 2010 Shanghai, China

www.hotelexchina.com

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• Country update: UAE• Industry best practice: Design• Roundtable: Conference and banquet-ing managers• Product analysis: Beds and bedding• Product guide: Soft furnishings• Technology report: Building manage-ment systems

Hotelier Middle East Supplier Survey 2010: suppliers speak out about hotel companies in the region for the fi rst time

If we believe everything we read, then so far, so good for 2010. Our inboxes have been bulging with news of many companies’

new signings, new appointments and “record achievements” in 2009. The whining about the economic crisis has subsided and onwards and upwards seems to be the motto. What credit crunch I hear you ask?

However, we can’t help thinking that some of you received rose-tinted spectacles in your Christmas stock-ings. Yes, there is a lot happening — but it is not all good news.

At Hotelier Towers, we received disturbing information that one of Dubai’s new hotels is fi ghting a losing battle against its staff, who are appar-ently leaving the property in quick succession amid claims of unfulfi lled promises, unfair treatment and round-the-clock working hours.

The staff we have encountered at this hotel are some of the most friendly and upbeat around, so we have an inkling it would need to be something fairly major to knock their spirits.

Perhaps they should go and get a job with Royal Caribbean International — I doubt much would dampen the enthusiasm of the fun-loving staff on board its cruise ships.

Despite a team of 800-plus people of more than 60 nationalities work-

Next issue

Don’t Miss

ing on board the Brilliance of the Seas cruise ship that has recently begun a tour of the Arabian Gulf, the feeling was of a tight-knit community eager to embrace the guests into their home. Each member of staff appeared confi -dent in their roles, which enabled their personalities to come across

Why don’t more “hospitality experts” in this region encourage this attitude in their teams? It made for such a refreshing change and really impacted the guest experience.

We could almost be converted to holidaying at sea on a regular basis

The fear of straying from the script, felt by many in this region, came across in a recent press release from a company in Ras Al Khaimah. Jour-nalists were instructed to “publish it in the exact same way as attached and approved by our management”.

While the old “copy and paste” trick would certainly make our jobs easier, we are not so sure it would do the hotel industry any favours.

Luckily, we did not face the same restrictions with a press release from Kraft Foods. You may have been so distracted by the spectacular fi rework display at the opening of Burj Khalifa that you missed news of another tower unveiled in Dubai.

In a “tribute” to the opening of the 828-metre-high world’s tallest tower, cookie favourite Oreo created a four-metre structure out of replica biscuits at Lulu’s Al Barsha.

We were just upset that we were only invited for the photo shoot, not a tasting session… HMEHME

Cookies and fi reworks— two of our favourite things.

Splash at Aloft Abu Dhabi.

f we believe everything we read,then so far, so good for 2010.Our inboxes have been bulging

COOKIE MONSTER

This month you have the chance to win lunch for two at the Mai Café and a day by the Splash pool at Aloft Abu Dhabi. All you need to do is answer the following question:

How many CEOs has Dusit International had in its 62-year history?

Send your answer and contact details via email to [email protected] with the word COMPETITION in the subject line.

Last month’s winner of dinner for two at Dine at Aloft Abu Dhabi was Archith Nair, sales manager, regional sales offi ce, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts.

Hotelier competition

Creating

www.villeroy-boch.com/hotel

Times change – in fine dining too. ‘URBAN NATURE’ is a trailblazing sign of new departures – to new worlds of design, to new forms of hospitality.

Villeroy & Boch · Hotel & Restaurant Division MELloyd LamprechtAl Thuraya Tower #2, Office 1906Dubai Technology and Media Free ZoneAddress: P.O. Box 125846 · Dubai, U.A.EMobile: +971-50-798 7233 · Fax: +971-4-885 0069E-mail: [email protected]

Associated Member The GULFOOD will be from the 21st–24th February 2010,Dubai World Trade Center, Hall 1, Stand # C1-24.

hotelier middle east - feb 2010

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