Upcoming competition and supply potentially outweighing demand are the biggest concern for GMs. Upcoming competition and supply potentially outweighing demand are the biggest concern for GMs.

The next boom town
While a number of respondents claimed that Egypt is making a comeback (see our Egypt market update on p.40), a number of GMs claimed that if there’s going to be another regional boom town, Doha and Abu Dhabi stand a chance of getting ahead of the rest.

The majority of respondents, however, admitted they think Dubai will always lead the way. While 34.5% said that Dubai won’t reach market saturation as long as it diversifies, nearly the same number (32.7%) reported that the pipeline is unrealistic. Another 21.8% said that there are already too many hotels in Dubai and a similar picture was painted for Abu Dhabi.

Interestingly, more than two-thirds of respondents (67.2%) think Abu Dhabi and Dubai should not be marketed together as one destination, whereas the rest said this was a good idea. Other ideas for increasing tourism to Abu Dhabi were continuing to develop leisure attractions (69%), further developing the island offerings (32.7%) and diversifying the hotel landscape to offer more mid-scale supply (26.9%). The GMs also suggested reducing airline prices and marketing the city as a region, with packages including Al Ain.

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General managers across different parts of the region experienced varied challenges. For the Saudi Arabia-based respondents, Saudisation was the biggest concern, with 52.7% reporting this as a problem. Cited as concerns by 40% of participants were recruitment, training, attracting new markets, and legislation.

In Qatar, attracting new markets was similarly an issue, while alcohol legislation was another. Lack of infrastructure came out on top however, with 45.5% saying this was the biggest problem.

On a more personal note, regarding the day-to-day responsibilities of the general manager, the most testing issue for GMs is balancing owner, operator, guest and staff requirements. Managing owner expectations was a major concern for hoteliers, while a lack of talent, and retaining key staff was another worry.

Interestingly, general managers reported anecdotally that their most important role was staff mentoring, helping to develop talent, and nurturing upcoming leaders. This was revealed as being more important than keeping owners happy, driving revenue or guest satisfaction.

However, our quantitative data shows that 68% rated guest satisfaction as their highest priority, with only 18% citing staff satisfaction as key. Owner satisfaction came somewhere in between, with 14% saying this was their top concern.

To keep owners happy, our GMs said, clear, regular and transparent communication was essential, while driving business and achieving ROI was also important. Other methods included managing expectations, and educating owners on the market; coming up with creative revenue streams and delivering on promises.

Speaking of priorities, 80% of respondents believed that tackling environmental issues was high on the agenda and even more gave importance to embracing social media (90%). Seventy-eight percent outsource this function, compared to 22% who manage social media in-house.

General managers, not surprisingly, reported that meeting new people — both guests and staff — was one of the most enjoyable parts of the role, along with tackling new challenges daily and the diversity of being a general manager.

However, they lamented the stress of the job, the long hours and juggling various stakeholder requirements. Some mentioned licensing procedures, low season challenges and ungrateful owners as added trials, while one respondent claimed that TripAdvisor was the biggest irk, however the individual qualified this, saying the site can be constructive if the user is honest. The majority of respondents very encouragingly, however, reported that they disliked absolutely nothing about their role.

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