Zighy Bay uncovered

Hotelier Middle East paid a visit to Six Senses’ Oman hideaway to explore its unique approach to F&B, the environment and HR, and to meet the members of the team who are at the forefront of the resort’s deserved success

Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay in Oman has recently been named the ‘World’s Leading New Resort’ in the World Travel Awards, announced at last month’s World Travel Market held in London.

And following a trip to the resort, hidden in the mountains on the Musandam peninsula, Hotelier agrees that it is deserving of the title.

This is not just because of the “five-star accommodation, outstanding customer service and luxurious setting” acknowledged by the World Travel Awards, however, but also down to the passionate efforts made by the team behind the scenes.

Lead by general manager Rochelle Kilgariff — who previously headed up Soneva Fushi and was the first female general manager appointed by Six Senses — the team at Zighy Bay has a unique character.

Firstly, the resort is committed to Omanisation, with a third of the team (67 hosts) being Omani, contributing to the authenticity of the resort, itself modelled on a typical Omani village and built using local materials.

“The plan is to get to 50% Omani representation on the team before the end of the second financial year, which for us is the end of June next year,” says Kilgariff.

The ultimate aim is to have 85% of the staff Omani, in line with the current country law.

“We obviously would dream of getting to that level and eventually we will, but you have to take it in stages. We’ve presented to the labour minister our plan to get 85% Omanis, but it’s obviously over a longer term — I think we’ve given a projected two and a half years,” says Kilgariff.

“They are talking about adding another airport to this region, that will bring an enormous amount of infrastructure to Musandam and a larger population — if that goes ahead in the immediate future we could look at reducing the timeframe.”

Kilgariff, along with other executive team members, works closely with Robert MacLean of the National Hospitality Institute (NHI) in Oman to recruit local staff in addition to providing a wealth of opportunities to the local villagers.

“I would say 80% of the Omani hosts that have been brought on board have come through NHI,” acknowledges Kilgariff.

“It’s a really lovely project; we go and do recruitment drives in the outlying areas such as Sohar and Dibba, have an open day and advertise in local papers to get nationals to come and sit an exam and go through an interview process with us in whatever areas they are interested in joining the hotel.

“If we confirm that they have the right calibre and background to work at Six Senses, NHI takes them at government expense for a six-month training programme on hotel operations and after they’ve graduated, our commitment is that we’ve confirmed them a job and they’re commitment is to stay with us for a year minimum,” explains Kilgariff.

There is now an Omani omanisation director on the executive team and Kilgariff seems confident that one day, the resort could even have an Omani GM.

Obviously it is not just Omanis who are important at Zighy Bay; looking after staff is a key focus for Kilgariff and it is one of the priorities highlighted at the Six Senses annual GM conference held in October.

The second priority is delivering environmental initiatives.

Kilgariff says: “Across the board we’re all in challenged times. As far as successes go we are holding our own, times are tough but we have been able to sustain our business partners. We’re still aggressively targeting new business and new markets”.

Going forward, she said the company had chosen to focus on two things that might traditionally go by the wayside during a downturn.

“There’s two main focuses; we’re still focusing on our environmental initiatives and concerns and also on one of our main assets, which is our HR, to ensure we are still leaders in that area.”

The strategy appears to be working; every ‘host’ Hotelier came into contact with was friendly and polite, helpful while understanding the need for privacy and well versed in the resort’s amenities.

Environmental entrepreneurs

On the other hand, Zighy Bay tends to keep its extensive environmental and social campaigns a little quieter.

According to its environment and social responsibilities officer Tara Hammond, who has both a degree in hospitality and a masters in responsible tourism, this is deliberate.

“I have a lot of guests that want to speak to me; they want to know about the area and what we’re doing. They know Six Senses gives back to the local community but we don’t put it too much in their face,” she says.

The projects, which are local, national and global, are financed by the hotel’s Social Environmental Responsibility Fund (SERF).

“Every month, 0.5% of our revenue goes into this fund and it can be from US $3000 to $10,000 every month depending on occupancy,” says Hammond.

Kilgariff adds: “I’ve got a lot of money I can spend. It’s a initiative that the chairman and his wife [Sonu and Eva Shivdasani] set up when they founded the company 14 years ago, so millions of dollars have been raised by the project”.

At Zighy Bay, the money is being invested into programmes as diverse as Build a Smile, a fantastic project which involves guests rebuilding homes for villagers in return for free room nights, ‘Dental Care’ for children of the local village, Zighy Bay English classes, monthly blood donations and a scheme to protect the coral reef in partnership with the Environment Society of Oman

In addition to the SERF fund, 2% of room revenue is channelled towards Six Senses Carbon Offset Fund, which establishes alternative energy producing methods in communities of developing countries.

The first project is in Tamil Nadu, India.

As a company, Six Senses is also going a step further and developing its own ‘carbon calculator’.

“That’s going to look at all our carbon emissions, so I need to put the systems in place for people to be able to measure that sort of thing,” Hammond explains.

“It will look at all our guests’ and hosts’ flights, [the transport] of every single piece of food and other item that has reached here from its original country, [the fact that] all guests get here by car, excursions, waste, meals — what proportion is vegetarian and non-vegetarian etc.

“There are eco lodges [doing this sort of thing] but on the luxury level this is really advanced. There is actually someone doing it; it’s not talk.”

Despite the pressures to get these systems in place, Hammond clearly thinks it is both well worth it and absolutely necessary.

“I don’t think it’s expensive; because we are a luxury resort so we do have the capital to invest in it. The return on investment is also high as well.

“I don’t think there is any option at the moment in the way things are going in the world. Here in Dubai, especially the hotels and resorts are going towards being greener and we’re just lucky that we are a step ahead at the moment.

“I think people are choosing us over other resorts because of our credentials,” she adds.

At the same time, Hammond is the first to admit that a resort with some 80 private pool villas that requires transport by car is unlikely to ever be completely sustainable.

She hopes though that once the Six Senses carbon calculator is finalised — and with the addition of solar panels that Hammond says will “definitely be coming in the future” — all carbon emissions will be offset, making the resort as sustainable and ecologically-minded as possible.

Community chef

Hammond’s passion for the environment is supported wholeheartedly by Six Senses Hideaway executive chef Gerald Bergue, who is also dedicated to working with the local community and using naturally available produce.

Bergue says that this was challenging in the first six months, but that he now obtains 65% of his ingredients from the local market — honey from bee hives in the mountains, fish from local villagers and free range eggs from a farmer in Fujairah for example.

“I have really reliable suppliers who know me well. You have to eat to preserve; you have to eat or he won’t produce any more — that’s how I support all these suppliers,” says Bergue.

In addition, he also has his own supplies growing in a garden the other side of the mountains and a organic plot next to the resort.

“I grow mangos, oranges, limes, salad leaves, tomatoes,” says Bergue. “No mangos are imported, they are all from the garden and when the season is over I can freeze mangos for fresh juice.

“My next project is a mushroom hut, like at our sister property in the Maldives,” he says.

The menus at Zighy Bay have, as a result, been created based upon “what is easy to get and what is feasible,” he adds.

Bergue is also very flexible, developing menus for 18 different destination dining locations across the resort and tailoring menus to guests’ specific requirements — accommodating everything from detox plans to dietary intolerances.

“I’d rather tailor the menu; if a guest comes here they have to be happy and you get more recognition,” he says.

Generally speaking, the cuisine is also very healthy, with Six Senses’ philosophy followed and at least six or eight dishes of spa cuisine on all the outlets’ menus.

“There are 101 no-nos — things I don’t use in the kitchen,” enthuses Bergue. “You’ll never see caviar, foie gras or red snapper on my menu and certainly no blue crab, no veal, no baby chicken — all birds need to be adult size.”

Following five years with Banyan Tree previously, Bergue says he developed his specialism in spa cuisine, which predominately inspires the menu at Sense on the Edge — a wine pairing restaurant with exquisite set menus in a simply breathtaking location.

He is also inspired by molecular technology, but focuses on extraction rather than using nitrogen or other chemicals

“My style of cuisine is very simple, I play with flavours and just blend them into the dishes so guests can really see it — if they are eating lobster that’s what they are tasting,” says Bergue.

He hopes in the future to open a raw cuisine restaurant at Zighy Bay, which would be located within the destination spa Six Senses plans to develop overlooking the resort.

The major focus, however, is to get more Omanis in the kitchen. In partnership with NHI, Bergue currently has six Omanis out of 37 chefs and an 18-person stewarding team.

“Wee are searching for more, I am trying to get at least 20 Omanis by the end of my contract,” he says.

FUTURE EVOLUTION OF ZIGHY BAY

Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay’s social and environmental commitments and ongoing Omanisation programme are clearly commendable, but how has the resort fared during the economic downturn and what are the business prospects for 2010?

“As far as occupancy goes, we are not looking at beating our budget of course, but we are still confident that the forecasts that we’ve planned will come through. We’re getting very excited because it’s looking much healthier in the last three months,” comments Kilgariff.

“We hovered around 30 to 35% over the summer, but I’m looking to get it up to the 60s, if not 70s, for the last quarter — that’s a tall order but we have hopefully a couple of pieces of business that we would like to secure that would help us get that.”

Generally speaking she says, “it’s still extremely last minute pick up, everyone talks about business being late, but this is now even scarier — it’s really late and it’s surprising how much of a difference we can make over a couple of days”.

Future plans include developing small group business with incentives, as long as they do not interfere with the guest experience of others at the resort, a focus on the festive period and a lunch menu to widen the offer at Sense on the Edge.

Plus, Kilgariff reveals there are major plans to add to the physical facilities of the resort, with an observatory tower and 44-villa destination spa on the cards.

“They’re both projects because we see this region as being very strong and obviously with investment, all Six Senses properties generally get better with age and evolve and bring in new guest experiences.

“I’ve got a cinema paradiso, which is an open-air cinema, planned but it’s just a matter of logistics and physical timing to make these things happen, but they’re definitely on the books. These types of projects don’t get deferred because they’re generally part of our evolution of a resort developing,” asserts Kilgariff.

“The challenge for me now moving forward at Zighy Bay is that while we’ve had some amazing coverage, we would still like to get a little bit more; it’s kind of a catch 22 situation. I have lots of people talking about Zighy Bay but then I have lots of people saying ‘I don’t know anything about it’,” she continues.

The “big news”, she adds is that a new director of sales and marketing has joined the team — Demeiter Vaubell, who brings with her 20 years’ hospitality experience having worked for a number of global hotel chains including Hyatt, Hilton, Carlson Hotels and Anantara Resorts & Spas.

“It’s just making the Middle East more aware of Zighy Bay and taking it to the next step,” sums up Kilgariff.

And with the pressure now on to live up to the title of ‘World’s Leading New Resort’, and the desire to be considered for future awards as the destination becomes more established, there is no doubt that the team at Zighy Bay will be committed to making this happen.

SIX SENSES KEY PARTNERS AND SUPPLIERS

Construction architects:
Intermass Engg. & Cont. Co. LLC Sharjah
Details: +971 6 5583003
Responsible for sourcing and procuring natural materials, such as flooring from Nizwa in Oman, wall cladding using Zighy Bay local stones and slate tiles for the swimming pools from India. Wood came from renewable forests, with Mernati Wood supplying the furniture, such as beds, and Chandel Wood used for the ceiling. Also used extensively in the resort is Jareed & Palm fibre — in the villas’ Omani summer houses, for example — and this is procured locally in Dibba, Oman.

Furniture:
Art Decoration Co., Sharjah
Details: +971 6 5432061 /
artdecor@eim.ae
Indoor and outdoor furniture was custom-made based on design inputs from Six Senses Resorts & Spas

Mattress:
M/s Middle East Mattress Factory
(a subsidiary of Sealy)
Details: +9 662 608 1333
Procured by Intermass Engg.
& Cont. Co. LLC Sharjah

Bed linen:
M/s Cooper International
Details: +971 4 885 1540

Bed linen:
M/s Somphol Bedding
& Mattress Industry Co. Ltd
Details:+ 662 322 4320

Tableware / Buffetware:
Andy Mannhart Co. LLC
Details: +971 4 396 0767 /
Dubai@andymannhart.com / www.andymannhart.com

Lighting :
Intermass Engg. & Cont. Co. LLC, Sharjah
Details: +971 6 5583003
Lighting was custom-made in their workshop.

In-room TV:
Omnix Media Networks
Details: +971 4 338 8812

Commercial kitchen equipment:
Emirates Design Systems
Details: +971 4 336 7610 /
edsfse@emirates.net.ae / www.emiratesdecor.com