When Nicholas Campos’ Ontario burger chain franchise went under following the 2008 recession, he returned to Dubai, determined to resurrect his hospitality career.
“I first came to Dubai in 1985 when I was very young, and worked for various hotel groups — Hilton, Jumeirah and Jebel Ali. I also did a sales job for Mars and worked in a bank,” recalls the native Goan.
“In 2006 we migrated to Canada as a family. My wife had been born and raised in Kenya, we were living in Dubai, and we felt that we needed to find somewhere to call home.”
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After working in Ontario as an F&B outlet manager and hotel GM, Campos developed the business he’d dreamed of, running a franchise of Lick’s Homeburgers. But the 2008 recession hit the 32-strong chain hard, and Campos’ franchise was one of many that ultimately sank. “I lost everything,” he says.
Campos returned to Dubai in 2014 without his now-grown-up family, and his previous good work with Jebel Ali paid off with an offer to manage the JA Hatta Fort Hotel.
“Contacts and connections are my speciality,” he says. “I always stay in touch with people and send regular greetings. And I got this job through a phone call to the CEO. He said: ‘Pack your bags and I’ll find something for you.’
“Fortunately the operations manager at JA Hatta Fort was moving on, and I got the job. I’d visited the hotel for two nights 14 years previously with the kids for a holiday. Little did I know I’d eventually be working here.”
JA Hatta Fort is billed as an exclusive mountain retreat just an hour’s drive from the city of Dubai in the Hajar Mountains on the UAE’s border with Oman.
Situated in an 80-acre hill park with rock-feature swimming pools and recreational facilities including tennis, mini-golf, archery and entertainment options, it offers 48-chalet-style rooms, two suites
and two villas.
On arrival, Campos stopped his car at the gate of the hotel, took a picture and sent it to his family. “I was so excited, and had such a good feeling in my stomach.”
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