He said that his properties offer one among the best salary scales among hotels in the region. “We also provide comprehensive medical insurance services for the Saudis and their direct family members, in addition to two days off per week. One of our main objectives is to provide local talent with competitive career opportunities in the different hotel trades that is balanced in terms of career development and working conditions in an environment that stimulates creativity and productivity.”
He highlighted the management development programmes designed specifically for Saudi youth, and specific regional programmes for local talents i.e. Mudir Al Mustaqbal Programme and the Engineering Graduate Programme which are currently implemented.
“Finally, we encourage all hotels to work closely with the hospitality schools/institutes to train and develop more young GCC nationals to join the hospitality industry which is a now major contributor to the GDP of these countries,” Brett added.
James Hewitson, general manager at Al Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara in Oman, told Hotelier that Omani nationals make up 25% of the property’s total number of employees.
He said: “This falls in line with Anantara’s ongoing commitment to the local community in each of its destinations and our resort goal is to provide long-term and development opportunities for the residents of Dhofar. We are also working closely with the Ministry of Manpower as well as the Omani tourism colleges to recruit citizens as part of our Omanisation efforts to increase the awareness of the hospitality sector in the local community.” The aim of the property, Hewitson revealed, is to be the market leader in Omanisation within Salalah and grow its percentage year-on-year, with training an important factor in the operator’s attractiveness to local talent.
“A minimum wage has also been introduced for all Omani team members of OMR 400 (US $1,040) in an effort to ensure that the resort is paying competitively with other industries to attract the best young talent available,” Hewitson added.
It is worth mentioning on this note that 25% of the surveyed general managers said they believed that pay rates at their hotel are sufficient to retain talented staff.
LOOKING AHEAD
So what’s coming up? According to the survey, 72.73% GMs think there is too much supply for current levels of demand, while 6.82% think the supply isn’t enough, and 20.45% believe the supply is just right.
The biggest challenge in the coming year is “increase of rooms availability in the local market”, which is driving rates down. One GM said his/her biggest challenge is “staying competitive as rates keep on falling”. Quite a few general managers touched on the rates, with one saying that “surviving the silly price war many hotels are creating” is definitely an obstacle. However, one general manager was positive and stated: “Increased supply may increase the footfall and Dubai becomes a destination.”
Some of the respondents said they wished the local government could help “maintain supply and demand ratio” and “stagger the release of new inventory on to the market and not overload certain areas”. Others also called for governmental regulation on rates. One GM said: “The government has to inform the hotels [about] rates according to the star category, and how much they can go below. That means five-star hotels cannot go below certain rates, four stars cannot go below certain rates.” Another said pricing caps set by the government would be beneficial, and another said the local authorities should “put a ceiling on the lowest prices being charged by five- and four-star hotels to decrease the undercutting currently going on”.
Quite a few said the theme parks in Dubai would impact tourism positively. One said that “new attractions in the city [are] generating demand from fresh demographic sources”. On that positive note, 79.5% said that they are optimistic about the hospitality industry in the Middle East in the next five years.
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