As hotel general managers across the UAE look forward to the fifth annual Hotelier Middle East Great GM Debate, being held on September 2 at Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai, Hotelier Middle East is delighted to welcome back His Excellency Helal Almarri, director-general, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) to the stellar speaker line-up. Almarri will take part in a live-on-stage Q&A with senior group editor of hospitality, Louise Oakley, and provide an exclusive insight for Debate delegates to the plethora of initiatives currently being spearheaded by the tourism body.
Almarri said: “The Hotelier Middle East Great GM Debate is an ideal platform for hoteliers and the wider industry to come together and discuss developments and changes within the sector. DTCM’s involvement in this debate is key as the team continually strives to work closely with industry stakeholders to leverage our mutual efforts.
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“Since the last conference, there have been several major announcements and landmarks which will contribute to the growth of the industry — Dubai won the Expo 2020 bid; the first phase of Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central opened; a number of incentives and initiatives to speed up the development of hotels within Dubai have been announced; DTCM has introduced a new hotel classification system; and there have been continual enhancements to the destination offering.
“The growth in hotel establishment guest figures that we’ve seen over the last 18 months is encouraging and together we are on the right track to meet our Tourism Vision for 2020 targets and make Dubai the most visited city in the world,” His Excellency added.
Delving further into the topics addressed by Almarri will be a panel session entitled Healthy Competition, which will see senior corporate hoteliers and GMs discuss the impact of Dubai’s evolving hospitality mix.
Other panel discussions will focus on the pressing issues of measuring hotel performance, the use of social media in hospitality, and the evolution of the general manager’s role itself.
Speaking at a meeting of the GM Debate advisory panel, Sami Nasser, SVP, operations, Middle East, Africa and India, FRHI Hotels and Resorts, said that “there is a real issue on which kind of figure we are talking about” when measuring benchmarks and using third-party reporting companies.
Burj Al Arab GM Heinrich Morio explained: “It is important to know how exactly the hotels in one’s comp set are calculating their RGI performance. A close relationship with your comp set is essential to obtain clarity on the method of calculation. In areas where discrepancies with the STR guidelines exist, they need to be addressed and rectified, if that is not possible then you should change your comp set”.
These points will be debated in the opening Beating Benchmarks session, then after lunch, the GMs will address the highly publicised issue of social media, specifically with regard to its impact on reputation.
As Serge Zaalof, managing director and president, Atlantis, The Palm, said during the advisory panel: “Reputation management will be really important for the hotel industry in upcoming years. Considering there are millions of reviews written each day across a plethora of different platforms, the world wide web has the power of influencing one’s decision making process; being able to manage your businesses reputation will determine success or failure.
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