The sixth annual Hotelier Middle East: Qatar Hospitality Summit is set to sizzle with topical panel discussions, presentations and workshops — all with the aim of highlighting best practice and new initiatives that will help the industry as a whole move towards 2022, as well as achieving the goals set out by the Qatar National Tourism Sector Strategy 2030.
After a presentation that will deliver market insights and a forecast, our first panel discussion will put the spotlight on the impact of falling oil prices. With a record-breaking number of guests to Qatar in the last year (2.93 million), Qatar is increasingly gaining significance in the global hospitality market as a key emerging destination in the region.
Tourism contributed the equivalent of US $3.7 billion to the Qatari economy in 2015, equal to approximately 2% of the total GDP which shows that tourism in Qatar holds tremendous potential for regional and global investors, owners, operators, lenders, developers, and other industry players. However, with the recent plummeting oil prices affecting all sectors within the region, tourism and the hospitality sector will inevitably take a hit also if oil prices continue to fall. So how can Qatar’s hoteliers weather the storm and continue to break those visitor records? We ask the experts.
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Another important consideration in the growing market is performance and benchmarking, especially with owners becoming increasingly engaged with the performance results of hotels, placing renewed importance on KPIs and financial benchmarks. As the QTA has recently announced a partnership with STR Global to develop benchmarking services for Qatar’s hospitality industry to provide analysis and insights to guide decision making on planning and promotional activities, performance measurement is increasingly more important. However, the challenges with benchmarking and obtaining hotel performance data still remain, largely in the discrepancy of data which is used. We will find out how the industry can work together with the regulatory body, as well as the data providers to find the best way to move forward with a standardised reporting system.
We will also focus on the front-of-house and back-of-house with discussions on F&B and sustainability.
The hospitality sector has a significant impact on the environment through energy and water consumption, use of consumable products, and solid and hazardous waste generation. These impacts create costs for hotels in decreased revenues, increased operating costs, and employee costs. Adopting company-wide sustainable hospitality programmes can provide a significant competitive advantage to businesses in the hospitality sector. With the Middle East’s hotels increasing sustainable practices at three times the rate of any other global destination, we explore how Doha’s hotels fare in the Middle East’s efforts to become a leader in sustainability.
When it comes to F&B, Qatar’s food landscape continues to expand and evolve, as each week we hear of another new concept or internationally recognised brand entering an increasingly competitive market. With rapid growth in the hospitality sector in recent years, investors who foresaw Qatar’s potential early on and established their F&B brands in the market have achieved a competitive advantage over those slower to react. However, as we see more outlets enter the market, it is important for these to set themselves apart and adapt. As we enter into 2016, we see a difference in what consumers want. A global trend that has been edging its way across the region is more family-focused, casual, communal dining concepts with a stronger focus on authenticity and community. We will explore how the Qatar F&B community plans to expand offerings in line with consumer demand.
The end of the day will offer a variety of department-specific workshops, which delegates can choose from before the day.
As always, the conference will have a number of networking breaks peppered throughout the day to allow delegates to network with each other and our sponsors.
ITP Hospitality Group senior editor Devina Divecha said: “The growth of the Qatar Hospitality Summit is not a surprise; the market’s demands and development are what led to the birth of sister title Hotelier Qatar, the quarterly magazine that updates readers on what’s happening in the busy sector. I am looking forward to hearing the debate and discussion on the day, as there is a lot of opportunity to learn from each other in this industry.”
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