Breaking new ground

Gordon MacKenzie, GM of the Ramada Plaza Doha hotel, is finalising the rebranding of the hotel to the Radisson Blu flag. At the same time, he has an even bigger task ahead of him: finalising a man-made beach hotel in Doha city centre. Shane McGinley reports

Gordon MacKenzie, general manager of the Ramada Plaza Doha hotel, is a big fan of meteors and geology, evident from the extensive collection of colourful rocks on display in his office at the hotel.

As we finish the formal business of the interview, he shows me some meteorological charts and gives a monologue of how the planets are part of a vast solar system and the Earth is just one small grain of sand on the shoreline that is the galaxy.

It seems his strive to understand the extent of the universe we live in is beaten only by his desire to make an impact on the Gulf state he has called home for nearly a quarter of a century.

As manager of Doha’s largest food and beverage hotel venue, he is set to turn the hospitality market in Qatar upside down as he manages his owner’s latest ambitious and headline grabbing project: a man-made beach resort right in the middle of Doha’s skyscraper laden city centre.

“We don’t have a beach [at Ramada Plaza Doha], but we are going to rectify that with our new hotel. We are having a beach there in the middle of the city centre. We are having a wave pool and it’s going to be absolutely magic,” he says excitedly of the project being developed by Ghanem Al Thani Holdings.

“It will be a water-themed hotel, with water at the front and a river running all the way through reception [under a] glass floor, all the way out the back, to culminate in a waterfall and a wave pool.

“It will be absolutely magic. It will be a man-made beach… It is going to be fun, it will be challenging and it will be an attraction,” he adds.

With 365 rooms and banqueting for 2500 people, MacKenzie is also planning another forward-thinking element for the project: golf. “It will also have an 18-hole putting green. The majority of hotels (have) nine holes, but we are going the full 18.”

The grand opening is scheduled for around August or September next year, but he is reluctant to reveal yet who the hotel operator will be, with around three potential partners currently in the loop.

“It is quite a tender subject but at the same time you have to think about your owner and the consequences of joining a particular company, so we are in the throes of negotiations at the moment,” he explains.

Article continues on next page ...

Radisson Blu rebrand
The company has also recently completed negotiations with the Rezidor Hotel Group from Belgium to rebrand the Ramada hotel as a Radisson Blu property.

“The Ramada flag comes down on midnight on June 30 and the Radisson one goes up at one minute past. We have been with Ramada for 33 years and we have decided it is time for a new flag and a new brand.

We courted Radisson through the Rezidor company, purely because it has got very good exposure within the Middle East,” MacKenzie says of the final decision to go with the Brussels-based hoteliers.

“There are a lot of other companies coming here and we are 33 years old so we need some input. We are having a complete refurbishment here and we are spending $20 million plus, and we decided on the Radisson Blu flag as we expect more referral business.

“Without being unjustifiably down on Ramada, but to certain parts of the world, Ramada is a three-star name. Here we have a four-star property and we like to do a five-star service, so we are going upmarket a bit with a bigger brand and without a doubt the Radisson Blu is four-star in Europe, but five-star in the Middle East.

“We are not purporting to think we will be competing with the Four Seasons or that, but on our service and service attitude that is where we can compete,” he boasts.

Future opportunities
With 22 food and beverage outlets at the property at present, MacKenzie is eager to transform the hotel into a destination point for tourists and visitors to Doha.

“We have a large car park with six hundred odd car parking spaces, we wanted to make this place a destination where you can drive up, get out and decide what you fancy eating. We have everything except a Thai restaurant here, but we are building a new hotel across the road and in there we will have a Thai restaurant,” he adds.

One event the hotel is certainly planning to take full advantage of is the FIFA World Cup in 2022, which will attract a global audience to the small Gulf State.

“When it was announced at 20 past 7 here, a little tear came into my eye. How proud I was that this little nation was awarded it and now no one can retract it,” MacKenzie stated, recalling the joy in Doha at the announcement by FIFA that Qatar had been awarded the tournament.

No sooner had the celebrations faded and it was reported Qatar was planning to have more than 90,000 hotel rooms in place to accommodate fans attending the games in 2022. Such large figures are something MacKenzie is suspicious of and he is wary of Qatar ending up with large white elephants.

“This is a little bit concerning when you get these numbers of rooms coming in as what is going to happen after those six weeks in 2022?” he asks.

“There is still time to think about all this and all the consequences. We certainly don’t want white elephants. A lot of families have offered to put their homes up. There are many ways to crack a nut so authorities have to put their thinking hats on. I would have villages outside the stadiums where you could house people and then reuse it for people working in the industrial areas.”

Beyond Qatar
The Ramada property, the new development across the street from it and the man-made water-themed hotel set for the city centre are all part of expansion plans by Ghanem Al Thani Holdings, which is owned by respected businessman HE Sheikh Ghanem bin Ali Al Thani.

Many of Qatar’s hotel community have recently announced plans to look overseas and take advantage of potential assets coming available in Europe as a consequence of the eurozone crisis and a lack of funding from European banks.

MacKenzie reports that Sheikh Ghanem is no different and the company is looking at its options outside Qatar. “We may go overseas, certainly into Europe and London, which has always been attractive for the Sheikh to have some investments. We have looked in the past and it has been in the plans the last three or four years,” he reports.

Despite these overseas plans, MacKenzie is adamant his heart is set on Qatar, in spite of the galaxy of opportunities out there. “Qatar is an absolutely superb country… I’ve worked in Dubai, I’ve worked in Saudi, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and Qatar I find one of the best in the Gulf from the point of view we have a wonderful lifestyle, and we are advancing and we have interesting times coming. It really is a great place to be.”