“Before coming we all had a question mark,” he says. “But when you come you see the facilities and services, the last thing you need is a drink. Because you offer everything else that supplements it. So from my angle it makes perfect sense.
“A lot of the traditional form of hospitality is that you maximise profit streams through alcohol sales; it is a strong profit maker. However, if you want to cater to families and for other elements, alcohol doesn’t necessarily fit in. And if you look at how wealth is sitting in this part of the world, and the needs of the clientele, it makes sense to do it.”
And he insists that the resort is already seeing plenty of business from beyond that core GCC market, with visitors from Europe, as well as expats within Qatar.
“The mind-set would be that you would not attract westerners. However since we’ve opened our doors, we’ve received a lot of western guests. Why? Because it is not necessary that you need alcohol. This is a different type of getaway. This is a family style, or a wellbeing getaway.”
Responsibility for attracting those guests, wherever they come from, falls on director of sales and marketing Elias El Khoury. He will look to focus on promoting the resort as a family-friendly destination, while also supporting Qatar’s aim of becoming a world-class hub, with deep cultural roots.
“Our marketing strategy incorporates all key mediums from above the line to PR and social media activation to connect with our audiences,” he adds. “The campaigns highlight our USP and key distinguishing features that help position us with all members of the community, from young adventure enthusiasts to food connoisseurs and the relaxed holiday goers looking for tranquillity.”
Social media will certainly be a critical weapon in his marketing armoury, especially since the region has particularly high online penetration levels.
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El Khoury comments: “Social media is one of our main channels for communicating with our target audience and it is part of our DNA for engaging both existing and new consumers. The sheer volume of engaged eyeballs with commercial intent cannot be ignored.”
And as food and beverage become increasingly important to hotels and resorts across the region, executive chef Muneir Al Sallaq’s role will be to make sure the F&B at Banana Island lives up to the expectations of both guests and walk-in customers.
Having joined during the construction phase, he details what stage the concepts were at and how they evolved once he was on board.
“When I joined I developed these concepts to an action, where I can put together the menu according to the
concept, according to the market availability from products. [The owner and Anantara] only told me the concept. Based on that I developed the menu, studying the market, finding out from suppliers what product they have. I also visited colleagues from other hotels here and saw what they have in terms of product challenges.”
Having himself previously worked in the Maldives, Golbarg sees similarities between that and Banana Island in terms of location, something which came into play during recruitment for the property.
“Most of our leaders, department heads and above, have worked in remote locations, in an island environment. Those are some of the prerequisites I look at. It’s very different operating in the Maldives than in a city.
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