The GM Debate opened to a packed room with a live interview on stage with Rudi Jagersbacher, president MEA, Hilton Worldwide - who was ranked number one in the Hotelier Middle East Power 50 2013.
More than 200 UAE hoteliers attended the Hotelier Middle East Great GM Debate 2013, held yesterday at Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai.
The annual conference, now in its fourth year, was themed around Hospitality’s Leaders, Innovators and Game Changers and comprised a series of live interviews, panel discussions and interactive workshops.
Industry heavy weights Rudi Jagersbacher, president Middle East and Africa for Hilton Worldwide; Gerald Lawless, president and group CEO, Jumeirah Group; Heinrich Morio GM, Burj Al Arab; Rupprecht Queitsch, GM, jw Marriott Marquis Dubai; Thomas Tapken, area VP Dubai and Northern Emirates, Rotana; and Serge Zaalof, president and managing director, Atlantis The Palm, were among the high level speakers.
The event was supported by the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and featured a live Q&A with director general HE Helal Saeed Al Marri, who also heads Dubai World Trade Centre.
Al Marri spoke of the need for industry collaboration and revealed various steps being taken by DTCM to foster this, including expanding its overseas offices, which now total 20 following the opening of a fourth office in China, developing its digital reach and creating events and festivals to attract business during the shoulder seasons in 2014.
Al Marri also said that increasing business from the high-spending MICE traveller was a priority for the tourism board and urged hoteliers and travel trade alike to work with the body in this respect.
Throughout the day, a variety of pressing industry issues were tackled by frank speakers, keen to highlight potential challenges and best practices.
Eyebrows were raised in the opening panel session, moderated by Viability director consultant Guy Wilkinson and comprising Olivier Hick, vice president operations, Gulf and Levant countries, Accor; Christian Grage, vice president operations Arabian Peninsula, Hilton Worldwide; and Mohamed Awadalla, CEO, Time Hotels, when Awadalla propsed that a cap on room rates should be enforced in areas of Dubai, such as Al Barsha.
“I even suggested to the DTCM that every hotel should have a ceiling rate,” Awadalla revealed.
This comment brought Hilton Worldwide’s Jagersbacher to his feet, as he asserted from the audience: “I think commercially, you are going to have to make sure that we satisfy the needs of our owners and the local businesses. To create gaps for set rates, I think that’s terrible”
Jumeirah’s Gerald Lawless was even more vehement in his response: “This city, and the market here, has thrived for so long on the basis of a free market approach to everything and I think it would be a massive mistake to even talk about capping rates,” he said.
“The market finds its own level, the market will develop,” explained Lawless. “We know when we get to 2020 we will be able to accommodate 20 million people, even without Expo 2020. So the market will find its own level and the market in Dubai always has found its own level and I believe we should never talk about capping rates.”
Other issues under fire were the need for hoteliers to “think like businessman” and reassess the use of space currently allocated to non-profitable restaurants; the pressing need to target the Chinese traveller; adapting to demand for non-classroom based training from generation Y; a current gap in attracting the super-profitable MICE market; and the ever-sensitive question of the service charge, and where exactly it goes.
There were also a host of exclusive news announcements, such as a new budget brand from Time Hotels called Time Express; revelations about the F&B offer at the Conrad Dubai, which starts its soft opening tests today; and the announcement by DTCM’s Al Marri of a new live events space under development at Dubai World Trade Centre, which will be the largest in Dubai.
| Advertisement |
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
