New approaches to service and convenience to draw business clientele
CAIRO: Cairo, the ancient city that has inspired many a novelist here and abroad, is no longer just a tourist destination but is beginning to embrace its dual role as a hub for Middle Eastern and European business.
As investment continues to pour into Egypt, consequently so will business travelers. In addition to the usual flow of tourists into the country, five-star hotels in Cairo find themselves increasingly catering to corporate travelers.
Over the last five years – certainly in the last three years since [Hyatt] has been here – there have been a lot of inward investment opportunities and corporate business has started growing, explains Gordon Campbell, regional director of Hyatt in Egypt and the general manager of Grand Hyatt in Cairo.
Cairo has become a business destination.
Unlike tourists who mainly look for value-for-money, business travelers focus on service. Hotels in Egypt have always been very traditional, but as the new hotels bring in different management styles and standards of service, it s changing. Campbell points to Hyatt and the Four Seasons as cases in point.
[We] have come in with a new outlook on things and trying to move the hotel business forward to what corporate businessmen expect.
What they expect is convenience. People are in a hurry now, he adds. Everything has to be quicker and on the ball.
This means access to modern technology, from hi-speed connections to wireless access in public areas. This also means availability of conveniences such as facilities for guests to make their own tea and coffee without having to wait for room service, and ironing boards to press their own shirts in time for an early morning meeting.
Service, however, remains an essential element of a guest s hotel experience. In Campbell s experience, You can never do enough training and supervision. The Grand Hyatt, specifically, is a large complex with over 700 rooms, and you have to have eyes and ears everywhere.
One of Campbell s tasks as the newly appointed general manager is to continue to improve the standards of service. There s no way I could say that everything is 100 percent hunky dory, because it s not. It s a continuous process.
Campbell has been a member of the Hyatt team for some 16 years, with previous posts in Istanbul and Dubai.
As a newcomer to Egypt – having taken on his new post only four months ago – he noticed a trend among his local staff: When I first arrived, talking to various departments, I said, I ve never known a nation to put itself down so much. Before a visitor says it [complains], we ll say it for you. All the time [Egyptians] say this is Egypt or this is Cairo, he observed.
Aside from a self-deprecating fatalism, he notes that foreigners usually have a much better impression of Egyptians than they do of themselves. Egypt, Campbell pointed out, is often held up as a successful example.
When I was in Turkey, and we had the bombings and earthquakes and tourism went down . I was part of the convention bureau, and we used Egypt as an example of how to react to adverse events. Look how they [Egypt] reacted so quickly and their business came back much quicker than it came back in Turkey.
Campbell compares the situation in Turkey to the 2005 bombings in Sharm El-Sheikh and the bombings in Dahab earlier this year in April. The president of Egypt visited every single major travel corporation and personally guaranteed the safety of every tourist, he added.
The Hyatt has a very firm philosophy on how to stay the course through a slump in tourism. The worst thing you can do to react to an incident like they ve had, he says referring to the bombings in Dahab, is to drop prices. Because if someone is frightened to travel somewhere for fear of losing their life or getting hurt, just because it s a $100 cheaper it s not going to change their minds.
Dropping prices only makes it that much harder to bring them up again when tourism levels are back on track.
The biggest challenge Campbell faces in his new post in Egypt is maintaining the hotel s position among its competitors. It s very difficult when you re number one to stay number one.
Earlier this year, Minister of Tourism Zuheir Garana announced the country’s commitment to adding 15,000 new hotel rooms annually. Most hotels in Cairo are large hotels, and have between 600-800 rooms.
The city s hotels – apart from during Ramadan – have 80 to 90 percent occupancy. That s huge considering the number of rooms the hotels have. Even with construction of new hotels, and renovation of older ones, supply can t keep up with growing demand, says Campbell.
