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Food and Hospitality Expo 2010 to be held under the patronage of H.R.H.Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa

Hotels in Bahrain will be one of the main features on display at the second annual Food & Hospitality Expo 2010 to be held on 12 to 14 January 2010 at the Bahrain International Exhibition & Convention Centre (BIECC). This will be Bahrain's largest gathering of food, beverage and hospitality industry professionals following last year's inaugural successful event.

His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain has, once again, offered his gracious support for this expo as its patron.

Hassan Jaffer Mohammed, CEO of Bahrain Exhibition & Convention Authority (BECA) and James P. McDonald, President of the Bahrain Five Star Hotels' Executive Committee recently signed the agreement confirming participation of the hoteliers at Food & Hospitality Expo 2010 highlighting the important role that our excellent hotel accommodation plays in attracting visitors.

The Committee will be organising and managing the presence of the seven five star hotels that will be represented with an 84 square metre pavilion at Food & Hospitality Expo 2010. These include The InterContinental Regency Bahrain; The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain Hotel & Spa; The Diplomat Radisson BLU; Crowne Plaza Bahrain; The Gulf Hotel Bahrain; Sheraton Bahrain Hotel and Moevenpick Hotel Bahrain. These hotels collectively represent more than 1,400 rooms of five-star standard in Bahrain.

The Committee's President Mr. McDonald, who is also General Manager of The InterContinental Regency Bahrain : "The Committee is grateful for this opportunity to show what Bahrain has to offer and will be working with BECA to show a united front at Food & Hospitality Expo 2010, an excellent an opportunity to promote our key objectives and to network within the industry." 

In addition, he said, "The InterContinental Regency Bahrain will sponsor the opening ceremony of the show which will be open to business visitors and the general public."

"Food and Hospitality Expo 2010 was conceived in order to optimize dialogue between exhibitors and retailers, participants and visitors in this industry and is an ideal opportunity for those in the ever-growing hospitality business wishing to access a market of more than 274 million people alone, in the Northern Gulf," says Hassan Jaffer Mohammed, CEO - BECA.

Many local and regional companies have already confirmed their participation in this event, which will feature everything related to food and beverage, catering equipment, food processing technology and packaging products. Bahrain Five Star Hotels' Executive Committee joins Babasons, Bahrain Modern Mills, Noor Al Bahrain, Chinese Centre for Kitchen Equipment WLL, Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry and TUV (Middle East) and in showcasing the latest innovations in the industry. It receives extensive support from sponsors Bahrain Airport Services, Coca-Cola and Tamkeen (Labour Fund) with Gulf Air as the Official Carrier. Food & Hospitality Expo 2010's media partners include Space Voice FM, Woman This Month and Bahrain This Month.

In addition, BECA and Tamkeen are co-financing a showcase, within the event, for Bahraini food industry Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with Tamkeen's pavilion being organised in co-operation with the Bahrain Business Women's Society.

Rosewood strives for Saudisation

While the support systems are in place for Saudisation, there are still several hurdles to be overcome in terms of retaining qualified Saudi Nationals in the hotel sector, says Rosewood’s Peter Finamore based in Riyadh.

A relative newcomer to the Middle East, Canadian hotelier Peter Finamore has quickly got up to speed with local customs and culture in Saudi Arabia, one of the most “welcoming” countries he has worked in.

In his role as managing director of Al Faisaliah Hotel, A Rosewood Hotel and Hotel Al Kozama, A Rosewood Hotel, both in Riyadh, Finamore is responsible for a team of 900 staff, 30% of which, according to current law, must be Saudi Nationals.

The hotels, which are owned by Al Khozama Management Company (AKMC), have so far achieved this ratio but it has by no means been easy.

“The company as a whole has met its Saudisation requirements. We struggle with it to be honest with you — it’s a constant challenge. Everyone in our industry really faces obstacles and these are mainly in relation to the cultural acceptance of Saudis working in service-related industries in general and in particular in the hospitality industry,” says Finamore.

A transition needs to occur in the younger generation, he adds, because, for a start, there are millions of young Saudis needing employment.

According to Finamore, the population of Saudi Nationals in Saudi Arabia is 15.6 million, but 73% of that number is under the age of 30 years.

As a result, the government is dedicated to investing in the development of young Saudis and the recent listing of Saudi Arabia as 13th in the World Bank ‘places to do business’ ranking will no doubt bring in new investment and create new jobs, says Finamore.

In the hotel industry there is already a fund in place to support Saudisation — the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF). Created from a percentage of the money paid by companies to the government for bringing in foreign workers, “HRDF is a self-funding government reinfusion of cash”, says Finamore. And, although Saudi Nationals earn more than their foreign counterparts, the fund offers great support to hoteliers, he says.

“The HRDF pays 75% of the Saudi employee’s salary during the period of their training and training doesn’t exceed three months,” says Finamore.

“The HRDF also pays 50% of the Saudi employee’s salary during the two-year period following the completion of their training,” he adds.

“This incents employers to work harder to bring in Saudis because it’s more financially expedient to do so,” says Finamore, tellingly adding: “that’s the theory”.

“So far, 200 Saudis have been introduced into this programme in our business and a large number of those 200 have decided not to continue,” he says.

Back to retention

The challenge clearly is keeping Saudis on the training programme. Retention is always an issue for the industry, but where Saudisation is concerned there are several specific reasons for this, says Finamore.

Firstly, as a result of the hotel industry’s great emphasis on training, Saudis joining the hospitality industry suddenly become “very marketable to other industries”.

“The trainees tend to get the training they need from our industry and then opt for careers in other sectors very quickly because they realise they can make a lot more money in areas like banking, plus those industries tend not to be as labour intensive.

“Those industries recruit directly from the hospitality industry. We train people and other industries grab them and this is the revolving door that we face,” laments Finamore.

“There really is a battle for minds. The very best people are in great demand in this country and clearly companies that can pay very high salaries or give other non-cash benefits are very hard to compete with.”

Hotels - You're Losing to Shatner and a Gnome

The major hotel companies need to rethink their online strategy to stay competitive against smarter, savvier OTAs

There’s a constant struggle bubbling just below the surface in the hospitality business, a push-pull relationship of strange bedfellows that sometimes becomes quite cross. Recently that tenuous partnership was frayed, causing some of those bubbles to pop loudly enough for the entire business to hear. That’s because the relationship between the major hotel brands and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) is not always symbiotic.

And in what amounted to a much-watched proxy fight for the entire hotel industry, Choice Hotels International and Expedia had a major falling out over the terms of their agreement to work together. Choice yanked their inventory for two weeks before the parties came to an agreement and signed a new three-year deal a couple of weeks back.

Problem is, this agreement has done nothing to solve the larger issue: that major hotel companies have been unable to break the habits of consumers from visiting OTAs in favor of looking and booking at the brand’s proprietary sites.

The end result is millions upon millions of dollars being funneled away from individual hotels and into the pockets of the smarter, faster and better marketed OTAs.

It’s a crisis that reached critical proportions during the last industry downturn that followed the terrorist attacks in 2001, but was then summarily ignored by the industry’s biggest players during the halcyon days between 2005 and 2007.

Now that hotel rates have tanked during the last year, the hotel companies are once again awakening and realizing that these sites, while they serve a purpose, are effectively torpedoing their profit potential while lining the pockets of companies such as the aforementioned Expedia and others, such as Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline.com.

“This is an interesting dilemma the hotel brands are facing. It’s really tough for hoteliers when RevPAR is down 20 percent,” said Bill Carroll, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Cornell School of Hotel Administration, who referred to the Choice-Expedia conflict as “acrimonious.” 

But the larger looming issue is consumers have been well trained to visit these sites, which puts the one hotel company that does not participate in a major OTA at a significant disadvantage against its competitive set.

“The reality is, these travel agencies provide the customer with what they want. Online Travel Agencies will continue to meet the expectations of discounting for several years,” said Carroll.

So that leaves the hotel companies hamstrung if they cannot effectively pull out of these relationships…unless they can do it all at once, which is of course completely unrealistic.  The hotel brands must now each take the necessary steps to make their sites even more sticky, interesting and dynamic as the major OTAs have become.

For its part, industry leader Marriott just unveiled a new website that attempts to keep consumers more engaged than ever before. The ability to book packages (including airfare) is more prominent, as is a section for booking meetings.  It’s moves like this which could bring more equilibrium to the situation.

Paul J. Brown, President, Global Brands and Commercial Services with Hilton Worldwide, feels it’s critical to have rate integrity across all distribution channels. Without that, ever-savvier consumers know a better rate can always be found just a few clicks away. 

“At the core of this is channel and rate integrity for any published rate that is available in any channel you choose to participate in,” said Brown last month at a Cornell University breakfast event. “Having different rates in different channels leads to long-term, and short-term, bad behavior. We are training [our customers] to shop around and that works solidly against rate integrity. You can knock yourself out of that considerations set.”

Brown said, however, that Hilton does more than five times more business through direct channels than all OTAs combined.

Yet, people attending meetings are also getting better rates than group negotiated rates. “The group business customer is abandoning the negotiated rate and going with an OTA rate,” said Steve Swope, Chairman and CEIO, Rubicon.

We recently spoke with one general manager who was attending a meeting, who chose not to book the group rate at the hotel. Instead, he went to an opaque site and figured out he could book the same hotel at a considerable discount. While that was good for his pocketbook, the ability for travelers to circumvent group rates will continue to negatively affect rate integrity.

The brands simply must get smarter and engage and delight customers through their own websites. Now is the time for action. If not, more market share and profits will be ceded to companies that don’t own a single hotel.

If that’s not enough to motivate the big brands from making smart proactive change, then maybe this thought will: Do you really want to lose out to a traveling gnome? I didn‘t think so.

How Highly-Effective Hotel Managers Communicate - By Neil Salerno

If someone were to ask me the most important quality of an effective hotel manager, it would be the ability to communicate clearly with hotel staff, superiors, peers, and guests. I believe that being a good communicator is an under-rated quality that needs to be emphasized in this new age of electronic communication. Most people would agree that communicating, in a meaningful way, is a learned art and not necessarily a natural skill. The true leaders, in our industry, are those individuals who consider the art of clear communication as an essential part of their job responsibilities and constantly work to improve their skills.

Effective hotel managers understand that good communication requires the ability to develop a commonality of purpose with their audience. The best communicators are those who have developed an ability to direct their message to the level and interests of their audience. I believe that it's a matter of developing interest and encouraging response versus simply presenting information.

The utilization of new communication tools has exploded during the last ten years with hotel websites, email, texting, mobile phones, and the use of social media featuring user-generated content. Any hotel would be hard-pressed to operate effectively without any one of these tools, yet they have complicated the communication process for hotel managers.

Communicating Within the Hotel Operation

Obviously, the first point of contact for hotel managers lies within communication with superiors, peers, and subordinates. Most people want to do the best job possible, but the biggest reason for failure is a lack of understanding the goals and expectations as set by ownership. A good way to communicate goals is to involve people in the actual development of those goals; allowing individual ownership to drive their motivation and success.

A longtime mentor once said "knowing how to do something is good, but someone, who also knows why something is done, will always be successful". Effective hotel managers have developed the ability to communicate "how" and , more importantly, "why" things are done. People, who know "why", have the ability to improve "how" to improve the way things are done. This encourages innovation and constant improvement from the bottom-up and not simply presenting information and procedures from the top-down.

Soon, hotel management will be deeply involved in developing revenue and expense budgets for 2010; perhaps the most difficult year we have ever faced. Whatever procedure is used to develop these necessary numbers, effective managers will make certain that everyone in the operation understands the ultimate goals for 2010 and beyond. Unfortunately, historic numbers may not be a reliable predictor as they have in the past. Innovation will be high on the list of operational improvements in 2010. Get your webmaster involved in the development of your marketing plan.

Public Communication Tools

You may not have thought about it in these terms, but the most significant form of public communication for hotels is the Internet. What your website says, and how it says it, is critical to its successful delivery of your message. There are still far too many hotel websites which are little more than "online brochures". To make your site a true sales piece, at least 20% of your website's content should feature activities and attractions in your area.

The most impactful element of hotel selection is still the hotel's location, not simply its address. People choose their destination first, hotel second. This fact is undisputed. It is a simple principle, but one that appears to be lost among many hotel website designers. Communicating why the hotel's location benefits the visitor is essential. Whatever happened to the age-old discussion of features and benefits to support the reasons why and how your hotel's location, facilities, amenities, and services will benefit guests?

Web 2.0, Social Media

I guess I am pretty-well known as a social media cynic, with the significant exception of travel oriented social media like TripAdvisor and a few others. I do believe that general social media, like Facebook and MySpace, can benefit hotel franchises with their branding efforts, but these sites do little good for individual hotels. In simple terms, it's often a matter of allocating time and resources to those things which can actually increase business.

Today, more than any other time in our history, hotel managers have more required operational and marketing tasks than ever before. To manage a hotel today, prioritizing these tasks is essential, yet I see too many hotels working social media but not the many other tasks which will produce much more business. If you have time to do it all, you have probably missed something.

Highly effective hotel managers will continue to prioritize issues and tasks to move their hotels forward. As we emerge from this recession, good communicators will be steps ahead in the marketplace.

Contact:
Neil Salerno, CHME, CHA
Hotel Marketing Coach
www.hotelmarketingcoach.com
NeilS@hotelmarketingcoach.com

Sellafield boss told staff to stay away to help Cumbria recover from floods

Sellafield's second most senior boss has come under fire after he urged workers to stay away to help Cumbria recover from the floods.

George Beveridge, Sellafield Limited’s deputy chief executive, gave the advice in a memo issued to workers who would usually travel from outside the area to work at the nuclear plant.

But guest house and hotel owners who normally provide accommodation for the workers are furious they are being kept away.

The county’s hospitality business has been left reeling from the economic fallout of the floods, with a huge number of booking cancellations.

In Keswick, some guest house owners saw a 90 per cent drop in bookings, while west Cumbria’s tourism trade has also been hit hard.

Many guest house owners depend on the business of Sellafield workers, especially during the winter months.

Only last Friday, Prince Charles switched on Keswick’s Christmas lights, telling the world’s media that Cumbria is open for business.

But some hotel owners in west Cumbria say they regard Mr Beveridge’s “stay away” memo as a setback.

In his memo, circulated among Sellafield workers in Risley and Capenhurst, Mr Beveridge pointed out that the disaster had a big impact on the area’s infrastructure.

He talked of the need to minimise traffic congestion and its local impact.

The memo added: “The Sellafield Ltd executive has therefore taken the decision to stop all travel from Risley and Capenhurst to Sellafield until after the New Year. ”

“Many people have asked how they can help and support the recovery operation; this is a very positive and useful way we can all contribute to helping...”

Ian Stephens, chief executive of Cumbria Tourism, said: “This isn’t helpful to tourism or local businesses and we need a careful hand now if the area is to get back on its feet.

“They have tried to do this with good intentions but if you are going to make a blanket decision, you have to consider the impact it will have on tourism and a local economy trying to recover.

“I’m also concerned about the wider perceptions it creates of Cumbria as a place to visit because the message that should be going out now is ‘come back’.”

He said businesses on the west coast rely on “business tourism”, which provides the area with an important income stream.

“They need that more than ever right now. We all have a role to play in the recovery and we would encourage any business to be suggesting alternatives for people. Otherwise it will only prolong the impact this has had at a time when businesses are most in need of support.”

The News & Star spoke to several guest house and hotel owners about the memo.

One said: “It’s a ridiculous message to be sending out. Sellafield is an important source of business for us and there has definitely been an impact on bookings.”

Another hotel owner who regularly accommodates Sellafield workers said there was a knock-on effect for the local economy as there were no bookings this week.

Peter Frost Pennington, who runs the Sella Park Hotel near Seascale, whose business was down by 80 per cent last week, said: “It was a terrible disaster but we have to be positive now.”

• Cumbria Tourism has set up an advice line for visitors to the county worried about accessing services. Call 015398 25070.