In order to get a brief overview of the Novotel
Kigali, what is the profile of the guests you
attract to your hotel today?
90% of the business is from corporate or government
segment, 1% are tourists and 9% are crewmembers
from African airlines.
What is the current occupancy of the hotel?
We have 100 rooms and the hotel is running between
45% to 60% occupancy. Our yearly occupancy is
around 50%.
In many similar hotels, we notice that conference
rooms represent the main part of the turnover
of the hotel. To what extent do conferences contribute
to your turnover?
It is true that in Kigali, conferences and seminars
generate a major part of our business. However,
it is difficult to say what share it exactly represent,
as the software presently operating in the hotel
is not accurate. Accor took over this hotel on
management in 2001 and we intend to deploy our
company software in the coming weeks. This will
enable us to get good statistics.
Is conferences part of your development strategy
for the hotel or are you mainly focused on increasing
the occupancy rate?
Yes, of course because conferences in Kigali
also generate room occupancy. But you should know
that, in the hotel industry, the main part of
the profit comes from the rooms and, far behind,
conferences and Food & Beverage operations.
Therefore, the best target are international conferences
with delegates staying in the hotel.
Today there are only two hotels, which are capable
of holding 150-200 people in a conference. So
I think the business is more or less equally shared
with our competitor.
What is your marketing policy in order to
attract new customers to the hotel?
As I have only been here for few weeks, it is
difficult to say what will be the marketing policy
in the coming months. I first have to analyse
the origin of the business in Kigali before develop
a strategy.
What I have noticed so far is that a big share
of the business seemed to be generated by the
government, embassies and NGO's. Therefore, the
contacts are here, in Kigali. That could be the
first target.
Then, sales trips in the region will probably
be needed to increase our share on East African
countries. I am convinced that there is some potential
for corporate business.
Talking about tourism, as there is a very big
will from the government to develop this sector,
I think it will be interesting in the coming years
to go to Berlin, London, Paris and Milan and try
to promote this segment. But right now it is a
very small market.
So I suppose your strategy relies more on what
the government is going to do for the tourism
sector.
Yes, definitely, taking into consideration that
at the end of the day, businessmen and seminars
will still be the biggest segment of our business.
Novotel owns lodges in some national parks
of neighbouring countries. Has Novotel the intention
to create such lodges outside Kigali?
Novotel is one brand within the Accor group and
Accor policy is more to bring investors than investing
itself. In Tanzania, we were managing government
lodges. Here, we know that the government would
like to find investors to renovate the properties
in the country side. If we can find these investors,
we would be glad to convince them to come in Rwanda
and develop the hotel industry with Accor.
Two new hotels are being built in Kigali.
How do you expect this new competition to impact
on your activity and what will be your strategy
to counterbalance this impact?
Today, the existing business in the two main
hotels of Kigali is just enough to reach 60% occupancy.
Building two new hotels will definitively have
a strong impact on us. However, until they are
completed, we will see if all the measures taken
by the government will boost the hotel industry
as, with the two openings, the number of rooms
in the upper segment will double. I think that
there is a need of hotels in the 2* market but
the 3 and 4* segment is fully covered by the two
exiting hotels.
I recently told my manager and the owning company
that we have three years to complete the renovation
of the hotel. If we can manage to get the air
conditioning in all the rooms, renovate the public
areas and upgrade our leisure facilities, then
we would be in a very good position to face new
hotels.
Furthermore, we have to develop strong customers
relations and make our clients faithful to the
brand and this hotel. If we take good care of
these clients, if our hotel and staff are good,
why should our customers leave us for a new hotel
where nobody will know them?
How soon will the five star hotels be launched?
The Ministry of Commerce says not before 3 or
4 years. Today the two existing big hotels are
hardly running at 60% occupancy. The small hotels
put together are running at about 30% occupancy.
If you bring on the market 150 rooms, which are
from the Hôtel Des Diplomate and the Hotel
Kiyovu, then we will drop occupancy. The Ministry
of Tourism says that we have to get money out
of the existing hotels before you bring new hotels
on the market. So we have four years to build
our clientele and make sure they will be interested
in our services whatever comes on the market.
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The government has recognised the role that
tourism can play in the development of the country.
However, it is observed that foreigners are not
well informed about the tourism potential of your
country. As GM of Novotel, do you feel the government
is following the right strategy and is investing
enough in promoting and making the tourism industry
more efficient?
Today there is a political decision to promote
tourism. Before 1994, there was sustainable tourism;
unfortunately today Kenya and Tanzania have developed
their tourism industries. It is going to be difficult
for Rwanda to approach the tourism industry because
they don't have much more to offer except gorillas
and the number of visitors to the gorillas is
limited. If you bring more people and they can't
go to see the gorillas, then they will be very
frustrated. The government is putting all the
professionalism of people to develop this industry.
But it will take some time before tourism will
present a real income to the country.
We were also hearing about regional cooperation.
To what extent do you think Rwanda could benefit
from cooperating with neighbouring countries like
Kenya and Tanzania?
They could sell package tours through international
tour operators. With maybe one week in Kenya at
the seaside or one week in Zanzibar and a few
days here, this is a possibility. Today, the biggest
problem is communication because so far there
are only 2 direct flights from Europe and regional
airlines do not offer sufficient flights with
the neighbourhoods countries
I think you that if you have to change a plane
or to make one or two stops, it is not very good
from the tourist's point of view.
However, Rwanda is targeting a different clientele
than Kenya where mass tourism has been developed.
Due to it size and potential, Rwanda is targeting
upper market clients.
We know you have only been here for a short
period of time, but have you been able to exchange
your views on the tourism sector with the government
and ORTPN?
From the very first days after my arrival, I
was invited to participate at a seminar organized
by ORTPN. And, since then, we have had at least
one meeting every month. So there is a permanent
exchange of view and experience.
I also suggested to ORTPN to develop a line of
derivate products from the gorilla theme. Having
spent over a year in northern Tanzania, I have
seen what can be sold to the tourists and businessmen
and here, with the mountains gorillas, there have
a fantastic opportunity.So we will work together
to create these products and promote them in our
hotel.
According to you, what are the main setbacks
or limits to the development of the tourism sector?
First, the number of tourism sites. There is
Akagera that is a tenth of Serengeti and can be
visited in one day, Nyungwe forest and the Volcano
National Park. All these sites are orientated
to wildlife. Then you have the Kivu region , Butare
and some possibilities of visits of coffee and
ta plantations. However, the second obstacle is
the almost absence of good accommodation outside
Kigali. This must be a priority for the development
of tourism.
The last setback is the price of airline tickets
: today you cannot fly to Kigali for less than
1,000 euros. The average price of a ticket ranges
from 1,500 to 2,200 euros. It makes the stay expensive.
How long do you think it will take for Rwanda
to re-boost the tourism industry?
To develop tourism, you have to count about 6months
to one year from the time you think of getting
the people or from the time you get the first
tourist.
We are talking about a country whose history is
not too easy to forget. The target that has been
given is to present a proper tourism program at
the World Tourism Market in November next year.
So they have a year and a half to develop a product.
I could say that by the middle of 2004, you can
expect the first organised groups of tourists
through the normal channels.
In order to achieve this target, investors
first have to come. In which areas related to
the tourism sector would you see the best investment
opportunities?
Development of the hotel industry definitely
because they are some nice opportunities. Today,
when you leave Kigali in the morning, you have
to come back at night unless you want to sleep
in very basic lodges. I think it is profitable
to build small hotels in the countryside for tourists
and businessmen because you have a rather quick
return on investment. Every businessman coming
to Kigali is a potential tourist because it is
much easier to sell trip to a businessman who
comes here than to bring tourists from around
the world. If you sell t-shirts, caps and stickers
of the gorillas to the coming businessmen, they
will get interested and try to find some time
to visit the country.
New hotels will be created, but will there
be enough supply of qualified staff?
Today any new hotel that would open would first
take the staff from the existing hotels because
there is no hotel school and people just receive
very basic training. Even if they received proper
training they would not get work, as there is
enough staff in the existing hotels. But there
is a project with the European Community to help
the existing hotel schools. This project will
start in September with the help of hotel industry
experts coming to Kigali to train the teachers.
You worked for Novotel in Arusha and now you
are working here in Rwanda, how would you compare
those two experiences?
First of all the market is very different, the
hotel I was working for in Arusha was a 60% businessman's
hotel even though Arusha is a tourist hub. There
is nothing to see in Arusha, so most of the tourists
arrive at night and go to the park the next day
so you hardly see them.
In addition, Arusha is not the capital, so you
do not have government, NGOs and industries. Arusha
exists today because of ICTR and the head office
of the East African community is based there.
Here you have potential because Kigali is the
capital and we are in the process of rebuilding
the country and its image. We can expect dramatic
increase of visitors in the coming months and
years.
Finally, the mentally of people is much more business
orientated here in Rwanda and it is definitively
a very good asset to promote the country and give
a positive image to future investors.
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