Just 2% of the Middle East's hotel GMs are GCC nationals, the latest survey from Hotelier Middle East has revealed.
In spite of Middle East governments’ attempts to encourage nationals into boom industries, such as travel and tourism, few locally-born employees are making it to the top of the hospitality ladder.
The second annual Hotelier Middle East GM Survey, carried out on HotelierMiddleEast.com over the past six weeks, discovered that Europeans still dominate the general management landscape in the region, with 12% of GMs born in the UK, 10% hailing from France and the Netherlands accounting for 9% of local GMs.
| Advertisement |
There are also several GMs from Switzerland, Pakistan, Morocco, Italy and India running regional hotels; however, not a single UAE-born GM answered the GM Survey.
The wider Middle East fared little better, with the exception of Lebanon which provides around 7% of the region’s hotel general managers.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
