General Manager (Le Meridien Heliopolis)

Le Meridien Heliopolis is one of the top hotels in Cairo, but the competition is very tough in Heliopolis. First of all, could you give us some background information about your hotel?

Yes, the hotel was built in 1985, and opened in 1987. We have 283 rooms, 5 outlets, and 5 restaurants including an international buffet, a Thai cuisine, and swimming pool area to have a relaxing dinner. A 283 room hotel is not very big; we have facilities for around 400 persons. We are a 5-star hotel, and we have been branded as Le Meridien since the beginning. It’s a French company originally - they came here and started training people. At that time they had 370 persons working here; now we are 456. We are limited in terms of size on the property because we don’t have too much space. Sure, we have a swimming pool, so in that sense we offer a limited outdoor range. We are competing with the Sheraton for instance, or the Intercontinental, and they have had the chance to look at what was happening in Heliopolis and have built accordingly. When this hotel was built, it had one purpose: to take care of the property line, and in that sense the possibility to grow has been tough. But Heliopolis is a growing area; all the big hotels here are very new and we can’t easily compete with them because of our limitations. Therefore we offer other services and we go beyond the normal expectations. Because we have a limited number of guests, we can take extra care of them, and we offer a very personalized service.

What is the average occupancy rate?

Last year we did 76%, and this year we expect more or less the same average.

They are more business or leisure customers?

Actually it’s becoming a mix, between leisure and corporate, we are talking in season. In some seasons you don’t have business customers - in summer for instance. So the market changes quite frequently. Right now in this period a lot of guests from the Arabic Gulf. Heliopolis now is becoming a popular Arab business destination, whereas downtown used to receive all the people of the Middle East.

What’s the main nationality of your guests?

European most of all, but we have as well a lot of Koreans and Japanese. Russians are a growing market as well. We are also very surprised by the growing number of guests coming form Latin America; Mexicans travels a lot now, especially to North Africa, and America is growing as well, thanks to the improvement of flight connections. Now you have direct flights and they don’t have to stop in Europe anymore, so it’s easier.

And according to you, why do they choose Le Meridien? For the “French touch”, or because of the quality of the service and of the facilities offered here?

Our corporate clientele definitely offers a lot of repeat business, based on the affiliation with the companies. Many big companies in the area have a long relationship with our hotel. The new business is based more on the easy access, and on where the client is located – more of the demographics option. Then you have a lot of programs; now we are Starwood, so we are part of those programs, and it helps very much to have the partnerships with the airplanes. Then you have the “French touch,” yes. It plays a role as well, to have the Meridien name, and we try to capitalize on that more and more.

And what is the ownership structure of the hotel?

We are owned by government administration.

So if you have some new projects, or want to renovate for instance, what is your degree of autonomy on the decision process?

Unfortunately, we have a matter of generation; the generation of the board, the chairman etc. They are still under the impression that the hotel is in good shape. There is a distinct difference between their frame of mind and the coming days. For us, we need to renovate this hotel, and they have had some soft renovations, but not a full renovation. So there is some difference of opinion, and that’s very hard to change, but all we can do is try to convince them, but the decision needs their approval.

With 8.6 million tourists last year, tourism is without any doubt one of the main sectors in Egypt, but it seems that it needs to be improved, because a lot of services and infrastructures are not at the level of quality they should be. For instance it’s clear that it’s quite difficult here to find well trained employees. Can you tell us if you think that a lot of effort remains to be done, and what issues and difficulties you have to face?

Egypt has grown tremendously in terms of tourism over the past 5 years. We have millions and millions of tourists coming now. Egypt is growing in number of beds, in number of hotels that have been built, but Egypt doesn’t have infrastructure in terms of training. The people, who work in this industry, have been trained by hotel chains - the hotels that open here. And if somebody opens a hotel tomorrow next door, they will take first trained employees from the already establish hotels. So there is an erosion of standard, and erosion of the staff, and it is challenging for all of us, to maintain a certain standard. So what you have to do is constantly train, train, and train. Anticipating the departure of your employees to another hotel, wherever that may be - you’re in Egypt, there is a very large number of hotels being built everywhere. The tourism is booming in Egypt - there are new destinations, Al Alamein, for instance. TUI is developing an entire area including 5-stars hotels. There is absolutely no infrastructure for personnel there, so most of the employees will come from Cairo, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, and Luxor. So that is one of the biggest issues, but the current minister of tourism in trying to change that. He had a meeting with the general managers of the 5-star hotels, and asked us to participate in a training program that is initiating to facilitate the training in the basic function in some of the hotels needed, to assist in providing trained staff. So next month, for a period of six months every hotel agreed, in addition to existing staff, to take X number of new associates, train them for six months, and then give them a certificate and release them back into the job market. That way at least there is a base for those hotels you are opening up, and for the hotel industry in this country.

So we can say that there is a good cooperation between all the big chains and the government?

Absolutely, it’s in everyone’s interest, because if you’re opening a hotel next door, you’re going to take me a lot of the associates, because you offer them a brand new hotel and another package. That’s what happens, in every area – in Sharm, here, everywhere.

Do you think, Mr Garannah, the new Minister of Tourism, who actually knows the sector very well after being so involved with the tourism private sector, will succeed in reaching the very ambitious goals he took, like doubling the number of tourists in the next eight years, despite all the issues we have talked about?

It is possible, because as I said Egypt is growing. TUI is one of the most important tourist operators in Europe, and definitely they wouldn’t enter into an area if they didn’t think they could fill those hotels over a long period of time. There are other companies like us – as Starwood we have a number of Sheratons all over the country, a number of Meridiens as well. Egypt has at the moment ten Starwoods hotel in the country, plus three Meridiens coming, and one or two Sheratons, plus the Westins. So you are talking about six Starwood hotels coming up. Egypt is a growing destination, and there is large capability of development.

Do you think that the improvement of the partnership between the European Union and Egypt has an impact on the development we spoke about?

Absolutely. First it is trying to be much more transparent, and it is trying to consolidate a lot of the trade issues, and trying to change its use. So there are a lot of benefits for both. Egypt as an investment market has some good parts: banking, telecom, and hotel. So yes there are some good industries here, but they are on the right track, and there are a lot of opportunities here. The partnership with the EU is certainly influencing that increase.

I heard that the French and German are the most appreciate visitors here in Egypt, maybe because of the cultural links - especially with France - and because of the real interest they show to the cultural heritage of Egypt. Do you think this is true, and how would you qualify the French tourism in Egypt?

French was, I wouldn’t say an occupying force, but a large trading partner - so was Germany. A lot of people speak French in Egypt based on that cultural and trade aspect. But Heliopolis was developed by a Belgian. At this time everybody was crazy, because nothing was there. Well soon all of this developed here. All those contacts and relation between French of course, but Europeans in general had a lot of impact. Here you find a lot of building with European architecture. There are many links and connections between those countries, in education for instance; there are several French schools. And there is much money flowing between France and Egypt - in help and in trade.

To finish, we spoke off record about your background, and it seems quite incredible, so could you give us “on record” a quick personal background?

Well I’ve been in the industry now for 30 years. I started in Germany, went to London, went to the United States, South Korea, Thailand, the Maldives and now Egypt. I worked in those countries for a number of years, always in the hotel industry. This has been my life - hotels have been my life, and it’s a passion, like with anything else. I love to live in different parts of the world, I love to experience the culture, the country, the people - that’s what makes this business fun, and that’s why I enjoyed it very much. I always say thanks to this job you’re able to live in any part of the world, where a lot of people pay a lot of money to get go for a couple of weeks. I lived in those countries, I experienced the true country; my opinion is not based on a vacation.

And which country surprised you the most?

Well, every country has differences, and interest. But probably South Korea - I was extremely impressed with this country. I had the highest educated work force with me in the hotel - university graduates working at the front desk or as waitresses, because they produce highly educated people, but they can’t find any jobs, so they end up in the hotel industry, because this industry is growing everywhere. And the country itself: the culture, and the fact that they are divided; Germany has been divided too, but we had always a connection. So I felt very close to what they feel, and what they expect. And the people are fantastic, at the beginning they are very cold, but in the end we became very close friends.