Q1 Could you please
introduce us briefly the hotel Riviera Royal and
its history in Conakry?
A1: It is a brand new hotel, the newest hotel
in Conakry, it is a 6 months old Hotel located in
the middle of Conakry down town and 15 minutes away
from Conakry Airport. We have 74 rooms including
6 suites and we have gardens all around the rooms,
as it is a ground floor hotel. We have the biggest
gym in Conakry with sauna, Jacuzzi and steaming
room. We have a semi Olympic swimming pool, two
tennis courts, one squash court, and the best night
club in Conakry, the Atlantis night club. There
are two restaurants in the hotel, the main one is
a French/Moroccan restaurant. The second restaurant
is a pizzeria at the pool site. The rooms are equipped
with everything needed such as hairdryer, split
air conditioning, satellite TV, mini bar, international
telephone as well as Internet service through a
satellite connection in all the rooms. There is
also available a business center where you can use
computers, photocopy, printing, scanning and things
like that.
For the moment we have 2 conference rooms with
capacity for 100 and 60 persons. Within 15 days
we will open 3 more conference rooms with capacity
for 450, 250 and 200 people. We also have some
shops in the hotel as well as a car rental office
and soon we will have a travel agencies office
inside the hotel. Our staff speaks all the local
languages as well as French and English.
Q2 Could you tell us in figures your expectations
for the near future?
A2: For the moment I have a good occupancy.
I am expecting good business not only for the hotel
but also for the country. I have started to contact
some travel agencies overseas. Within two months
I am expecting to have tourists' groups coming to
the Riviera Royal Hotel, most of them are from Europe.
Further more I think that a lot of investors are
interested in the country as it is a virgin market
in everything. So when those investors arrive into
the country the first ones who will get the profit
out of it are the hotels, the rent-a-car business
and the travel agencies and the taxis.
Q3 Could you be more specific about the occupancy
you expect?
A3: I expect a good average occupancy in
the nearest future.
Q4 What about the services you offer to your
clients and what kind of clients do you actually
receive?
A4: first, we do not have clients, we do
have guests. Second, the services we are providing
to the guests are numerous such as free transportation
from and to Conakry Airport, free access to the
fitness center ( La Silhouette Club ), free entrance
to the night club ( Atlantis Night Club), free access
to the tennis and squash courts, free access to
the pool, and our main aim is to transfer the guests'
money into services in a way that our guests are
satisfied, and in a profitable way to the hotel
to.
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All the people who,
at one time or another, may have the occasion to
stay in a hotel make up the hospitality market.
This ponderous group may be divided into two categories:
commercial and leisure. The commercial market which
I already have comprises people who travel as part
of their jobs, such as investors, sales representatives,
business managers, and attendees of meetings and
seminars. The leisure market which I am focusing
on now consists of people traveling for recreation,
sports, or entertainment .
Q5 What is the position of the Hotel Riviera
Royal within the tourist sector in Guinea?
A5: I am not allowed to classify the hotels,
but All I can tell you is that we have everything
that the guests may need, our rates are well studied
and affordable and the Riviera Royal Hotel is the
newest hotel in Conakry.
Q6 What can you tell us about the competition
you are facing in Conakry and the rest of the
Guinean Republic?
A6: Right now the offer is higher than the
demand. But I can say that this is no trouble for
me as we have the newest hotel and some of the other
hotels in the country need renovations. So being
the newest and having a well trained employees that
are working in team work spirit, are an advantages
for me.
Q7 Would you like to develop other sectors
of the Guinean economy?
A7: The Riviera is a group of companies.
We have a manufacturing plant, eight galleries and
another hotel called the Riviera Hotel. So for the
moment we are not planning to add extra investments.
Q8 What is your development strategy?
A8: It depends on the market response, I
have a positive view. As I told before a lot of
investors are interested in the country and it is
a virgin place. Most of West African countries has
been built except Guinea which is starting now.
So I am expecting good businesses in the country
specially that it's a free country and that the
government is working hard under and providing a
lot of facilities to bring new investors in here.
Q9 What can you tell us about your professional
career?
A9: well, I have a degree in business economics
specialized in hospitality management, 10 years
of experience in the hospitality industry. I have
started in a small position 10 years back and I
have been promoted until I got the position of General
Manager. I have been working in different countries
such as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, England and
now in Africa.
Q10 And what do you expect to accomplish as
General Manager of the Royal Riviera in Conakry?
A10: What I expect to accomplish is to maintain
the high standard of service that we are providing
for the guests and to improve it.
Q11 Maybe you would like to give us a final
message for our readers?
A11: I advise all the readers that are interested
in tourist, specially the European ones, to come
and visit the country, it is an interesting place,
it is a beautiful and a safe country, there are
a lot of attractive places such as the islands.
For the business men, I would like to tell them
that Guinea is the land of opportunities as it is
a virgin market. |
MR. JIHAD
BASSIL