I have never seen as many hotel general managers in one room at the same time as I did yesterday.

GMs from hotels across the UAE, along with some that travelled up from Muscat and the Musandam, gathered en masse at The Great GM Debate, the first ever conference presented by Hotelier Middle East.

We knew that there would be demand for an event like this, but the turn out was overwhelming, with 170 GMs plus government officials from the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) and top industry suppliers in attendance.

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The guests heard speeches from DTCM director of hotel classifications Majid Sager Al Marri, who spoke of the new classifications system that would include gold and platinum categories for five-star hotels, and ADTA director of tourism standards Nasser Saif Mubarak Al Reyami, who revealed the authority had started trialing its green hotel guidelines in four properties. He said in no uncertain terms that going green was a “win, win scenario” for hotels that made good business sense.

GMs also took part in eight interactive workshops. They were educated on the hard facts of revenue management by Jumeirah group director of revenue management Stefan Wolf, who said that however scary it may seem, “it is not a bad thing to fill last”; reminded of the simple practical changes they can make to be more environmentally friendly by Professor Neil Kirkpatrick, head of environment and sustainability of Royal Group; and able to share with one another their experiences with owners in a session with Viability Management Consultants’ Guy Wilkinson, which one GM described as “therapy”.

And throughout the day, the GMs continued to counsel each other, as they discussed hotel classifications and their relationships with regulatory bodies, spurred by the opening panel session on working with the government, during which Al Marri and Al Reyami were joined by Rotana COO Omer Kaddouri and Emaar Hospitality Group CEO Marc Dardenne.

During the session, Dardenne urged a more regular formal forum between hotels and government to ensure that legislation was working properly for everyone, and to help enable adjustments.

As the day went on, this seemed to be the tip of the iceberg, with many GMs revealing latent frustrations and the need for more support from the authorities, be it data on the upcoming pipeline to flexibility with classifications, especially when it came to international brands.

What began as whispers came to a head in the final panel session when Accor Hospitality Middle East managing director Christophe Landais and Layia Hospitality CEO Daniel Hajjar voiced the concerns of many of the GMs in the room.

They received a round of applause for their forthrightness, a sign that not only had the GMs had warmed up after the workshops, but that the issue of government support is one that holds real weight in the industry.

The support Hotelier received from the DTCM and ADTA for The Great GM Debate was fantastic, and we hope that bringing the two parties together is something we can facilitate again in the future.

The passion is there from both sides, that is not in question, the challenge is to harness that in order to achieve everyone’s ultimate goal — the future development of the industry and the destination.

Until then, we hope to welcome the GMs back for some more therapy in the near future.

A full review of The Great GM Debate will be published in the November issue of Hotelier.