Palace Hotel is part of Daewoo group international; what other features make this hotel particular in the hotel business in Khartoum?
The hotel is situated at the bank of the Blue Nile. It has big gardens, it is very quite far away from the traffic, and so the guest staying in this hotel would enjoy this tranquility among other services. The hotel has restaurants, a health club, which consists of a swimming pool, tennis court, Gym room, sauna, massage and billiard. So, I think this makes our hotel different. But this hotel somehow has its privacy, so after a long working day you need to have this kind of rest nice surrounds and big gardens…and the Nile view.
The staff of GNPOC occupies a high percentage of rooms. What is exactly the percentage?
GNPOC is occuping 60% of the hotel rooms.
How does the fact that 60% of the hotel is occupied by the staff of this company influences the day to day work of the hotel?
As a matter of fact, when we reopened the hotel in 1996 it had been closed for about 3 to 4 years approximately. We were lucky to have this company to come because to reopen a hotel in 1996 considering the political and economical situation, as well as the embargo, there were a lot of factors that made the business very, very slow. So to open a hotel in this kind of circumstances is very difficult, but as I said, we were very lucky to have this customer at that time. We started with 3 floors, then it became 4, then 5 and now they are taking about 7 floors approximately. We have 60 rooms for sell at the hotel. For us we concentrate on corporate business and FITs. The contract of GNPOC is going to expire, by the end of this year. The manager has a renovation plan for the hotel. According to this, we will have a full hotel with 147 rooms; we know our market and our clients and we keep a good relation with them. We have a number of executives who are members in our health club.
What is going to be your target when GNPOC staff leaves the hotel?
Our target will be to attract more conference business through intensive PR with ministries and other organizations, also to direct our efforts towards FIT corporate business. I think Sudan needs a lot of accommodation facilities to be built, and we have news that some Arabic countries are planning to build some hotels. So, maybe with the late development and the exploration of the oil and the economical improvement that have been realized, a lot of people would now look at Sudan. So we are not worried if GNPOC moves out of the hotel. The only expansion we might need to focus is on our food and beverage department.
| What are the main nationalities of your customers beside GNPOC, and what markets are you targeting?
Chinese, British, French, Canadian, German, Arabs, Indians. Conference, FITs corporate will be our target.
How relevant are Asian markets for you, being an Asian company as well. What specific services can you offer?
These markets are quite important for us because they create more business opportunities, we can provide accommodation, conference and leisure services.
How do you perceive the evolution of tourism in the Sudan?
Sudan has participated in a fair in Europe and I think they put up some film about Sudan. So slowly people are moving towards Sudan. Some people are trying to explore new places and I think Sudan will be the next destination: in the north we have the pyramids and in the east we have the sea, in the west we have mountains, in the south we have the safaris. The whole country could be a touristic site; we just need more facilities. We have also a number of travel agencies like Blue Sky who have a number of tourists coming here from Italy and Germany.
What image of the hotel would you like your customer to take with him?
I would like him having a good memory, a good experience, the image of friendly Sudanese people, and Sudan a safe country.
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