Power 50: 20-11

20

Daniel Hajjar
CEO, Layia Hospitality

Over the past three years, Daniel Hajjar has successfully launched Layia Hospitality into the Middle East market, with five properties now operational in the UAE.

This year, as well as opening Ruby Living Courts in Sharjah and Opal Living Courts properties in Dubai, Hajjar announced a new budget brand for Layia, Day & Night Hotels. He also signed a joint venture with CAPM Investments to open five Day & Night properties in Abu Dhabi.

In total, 15 hotels are expected to open by 2015, including Layia Plaza Hotel in Dubai in 2010, three hotels in Jaddaf, Dubai, and the first Layia-branded hotel in Amman, Jordan.

Prior to setting up Layia Hospitality, Hajjar held the posts of corporate VP sales and marketing and VP operations for Lebanon and Syria with Rotana Hotels.

19
Ahmed A. Al Nuaimi
Chairman, Qatar Tourism Authority

Since taking on the role of Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) chairman in 2007, Ahmed Al Nuaimi has spearheaded a variety of developments and initiated targets designed to boost Qatar’s appeal to business, MICE, high-end and domestic travellers.

In the first half of 2010, Qatar recorded a rise of two points in average occupancy and an increase in revenue for four and five-star hotels, compared to the same period in 2009. The growth has been attributed to QTA’s promotional campaigns as well as the expansion of Qatar Airways.

Al Nuaimi is also driving the expansion of the hotel sector, with a target of 40 hotels planned to open by the third quarter of 2011, with an estimated capacity of 6500 rooms.

He is also driving investment into the country’s exhibitions business — a Doha Exhibitions Centre and Tower and Qatar National Convention Centre are under construction.

18
John Bamsey
Chief Operating Officer, Middle East and Africa, InterContinental Hotels Group

Hotel giant InterContinental Hotels Group is represented in the Middle East by COO John Bamsey, who runs a complete business unit responsible for all company managed, owned and leased properties as well as franchised hotels in the division. He is also responsible for sales, tactical marketing and development within the geographical area.

He is responsible for 77 hotels in the Middle East, a total of 19,727 rooms. Including Africa, this rises to 99 hotels and 23,986 rooms. And while there has only been one opening this year — the Holiday Inn Express Dubai Airport — Bamsey oversees a pipeline of 37 hotels in the Middle East, which will add another 10,073 rooms to the market.

Upcoming properties include luxury InterContinental Hotels in Damascus, Marrakech, the Dead Sea, Tripoli, Oman and Kuwait, Crowne Plazas in Al Khobar, Madinah and Riyadh, and Staybridge Suites in Kuwait.

Bamsey was formerly IHG chief operating officer UK and Ireland; prior to that he was IHG’s area president of operations for Europe.

17
Dr Salah Kai-Bhukayyet
VP Investment, Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA)

Dr Salah Kai-Bhukayyet has played an increasingly significant role in driving an expanding and increasingly diversified hotel industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Reporting directly to SCTA president and board chairman HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Kai-Bhukayyet is instrumental in ensuring the country achieves its ambitious goals.

He was a key presence at this year’s Arabian Hotel Investment Conference, where he said the focus right now was on domestic and religious tourism, but SCTA has also been successful in increasing MICE business in the country and opening up Saudi Arabia to the mature, cultural traveller.

Kai-Bhukayyet recognises that there is a lack of investment in Saudi Arabia’s hotel market, which is why over a 10-year period there are plans to introduce 85,000 hotel rooms and 80,000 rooms in the furnished apartment sector.

Visitor numbers to Saudi Arabia are expected to nearly double from 47 million in 2008 to 88 million by 2020.

16
Ali Lakhraim
Chairman and founder of Lakhraim , Business Group of Companies, Partner and President of Millennium & Copthorne Middle East Ltd

Although he keeps quite a low profile, Ali Lakhraim’s dedication to the Middle East hospitality industry over the past 14 years has made him one of the most powerful hoteliers in the region.

Lakhraim is best known for his initiation of Millennium and Copthorne in the region but is also a keen investor in the hotel sector through his roles as vice chairman and founder of Pearl Azure Hotels and Emirates Hotels Company (EHC).

A UAE national, Lakhraim considers himself as “the only guy from the UAE who has an international operating firm and isn’t government hired”. He has massive ambitions for Millennium & Copthorne, aiming to operate 100 hotels by 2015 across the Middle East and North Africa.

Recent deals include three hotels in Iraq, and Millennium Plaza Dubai, among others.

Lakhraim is confident that by the end of 2011, he will have 50 hotels operational.

15

Eric Danziger
President and Chyief Executive Officer, Wyndham Hotel Group

Responsible for 11 brands, more than 7000 hotels and stating a prioritisation of the Middle East and Asia market, it’s no wonder that Eric Danziger has stormed into the Power 50 at number 15.

The last year has been exceptionally busy for Wyndham in the Middle East and Danziger has been at the fore of efforts to establish the company’s many brands in the region.

The group celebrated breaking ground on its first five-star hotel in the Middle East, the Wyndham-branded hotel located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This will join the Ramada portfolio which boasts properties in Dubai, Ajman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Doha, Jordan and Beirut with two under construction in Abu Dhabi.

Danziger also signed for the introduction of one of the Ramada tiers in Doha, the Ramada Encore, and has another sub brand, the Ramada Plaza, underway in Kuwait.

Furthermore, as someone who prides himself on expanding operations during downturns, Danziger is a fortress of hardnosed optimism when it comes to his company.

“I’m really bullish and optimistic about the growth of our businesses in the Middle East. Our strategy for Ramada and Wyndham is clear, we know how big we want to be and the question as we introduce our other brands in is what way do we do those,” Danziger told Hotelier earlier this year.

“There’s opportunities for Ramada, and with Wyndham there’s opportunities because of the places we aren’t,” he added.
Plus, he revealed his desire to bring the Super 8 roadside brand to KSA, so there is likely more to come from Wyndham.

14
Andreas Mattmuller
Chief Operating Officer, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts Middle East & Asia

Andreas Mattmüller makes his debut in the Power 50 at number 14 in recognition of the recent expansion and ongoing development of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts in the region.

The company’s portfolio includes 22 properties in key business and leisure destinations in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Yemen.

It currently has 15 hotels and resorts under construction in the region, with upcoming properties in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Oman, representing 5075 room keys.

Most recently, Mattmüller has overseen the opening of Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach — which has given the Swiss brand a funky new image in Dubai — and Ibn Battuta Gate, a 396-room hotel that promises a unique F&B offering.

Movenpick is set to open four more hotels in Dubai alone within the next 12 months.

With more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Mattmüller heads the operation and expansion of the brand in the Middle East and Africa, having first joined the chain in 2001 as senior vice president Middle East.

Previously, from 1997 to 2001, Mattmüller held the position of Operations Director Asia & Europe for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group with headquarters in Hong Kong.

During his career, Mattmüller gained experience in Asia and the Middle East, leading the management of many prestigious hotels.  

13
Christophe Landais
Managing Director, Accor Hospitality Middle East

Following the success of Novotel and Ibis in the Middle East, this year Christophe Landais has introduced yet another Accor brand to the marketplace in the form of the new upscale property Pullman Dubai Mall of the Emirates.

Other openings include Ibis Amman, the first internationally branded economy hotel in Jordan, and Ibis Muscat, Accor’s first hotel in Oman.

Accor now operates 34 hotels in the region and Landais is expected to lead the opening of 15 hotels in the next two years.
His other achievements include the establishment of a regional training academy dubbed as Tamheed — Accor Academie Middle East, which is dedicated to educating and preparing staff at all levels and ensuring optimal career development for its trainees.

12
Kurt Ritter
president and CEO, The Rezidor Hotel Group

Rezidor’s president and CEO Kurt Ritter — the longest serving president and CEO in the hospitality industry at present — moves up eleven places in this year’s Power 50, as his company continues its Middle East expansion.

Over the past 12 months, Rezidor has opened five hotels in the region: two at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, its first ever cluster of Radisson Blu and Park Inn by Radisson; and one each in Tripoli, Madinah and Cairo.

In total, the firm now operates 25 hotels comprising 6585 rooms in the Middle East, and has 15 hotels and 4225 rooms under development. Two of the most notable of these are the designer hotels Missoni Kuwait and Missoni Siffah in Oman.

Also in Oman, Rezidor has become the first hotel company to achieve Green Globe status for one of its properties, Park Inn Muscat, closely followed by certification for Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek.

Meanwhile, as Rezidor celebrates its 50th anniversary, Ritter revealed cost savings of EUR 36 million (US $49.2 million) across the group in 2009.

11
Jean-Paul Herzog
Area president Middle East and Africa, Hilton Worldwide

Moving up 11 places in the Power 50 is Hilton’s Jean-Paul Herzog, whose celebrates 40 years with the global hotel giant this year.

He took up his area role when Hilton’s new organisational structure was announced in 2007, and oversees 44 hotels across the Middle East and Africa, with responsibility for 27 more hotels in the pipeline.

Although Herzog has very recently announced that he will be retiring at the end of the 2010, he moves up the rankings this year following a series of achievements for the company in the region. Over the past 12 months, Hilton has signed its first resort property on the Dead Sea in Jordan; its first Doubletree by Hilton in Jordan, to be located in Aqaba; it signed the first Hilton-branded property in Riyadh and two further Hiltons at King Saud University in Riyadh; and teamed up with New Doha Hotels Company to develop two projects in Qatar.

Hilton also achieved a significant milestone when it opened its first Garden Inn hotel in the Middle East and Africa in Saudi Arabia.

The Hilton Garden Inn Riyadh Olaya is the first of many Garden Inns being developed in Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Al Hokair Group, in locations such as Riyadh, Al Khobar, Dammam, and Jubail. The second Hilton Garden Inn is set to open in Riyadh over the next 12 months.

And in 2011, Hilton plans to bring another name to the region, the luxury Conrad brand, due to debut in Dubai.