RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Community and education are the cornerstones for many newly earmarked hotel and travel destinations throughout Saudi Arabia, and it is the responsibility of the hotel firms and their brands to be thoughtful partners as the country catapults its way to becoming a prime destination on the world map.
Change is coming quickly to many in the country amid Vision2030 and other initiatives backed by ruling royal families and those at the very top of government.
At the Future Hospitality Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Fahad Abdulrahim Kazim, CEO of Tetra Hospitality Investment and Millennium Hotels & Resorts, Middle East and Africa, said hoteliers have a huge responsibility to provide strong platforms and partnerships with both public and private owners.
A big part of that responsibility is training the hospitality workforce that will be needed as hotel development and tourism ramps up.
“It is the key pillar for the overall impact in our ecosystems, the beginning of the process to build a sustainable model to train colleagues all the way from junior level through management training. It is an enablement,” he said.
Sandeep Walia, chief operating officer for the Middle East at Marriott International, said his firm is moving into the country in a major way, with 35 open hotels and another 35 in pipeline.
“Absorbing Saudi nationals, on the job training and entry level and mid-management jobs are all needed,” he said, adding Marriott has trained 150 graduates in Saudi Arabia in the past two to three years, and 70% of those have remained in hotel leadership roles.
“Another program, a two-year program, launched last year gets leaders ready to be general managers,” he added.
Maher Abou Nasr, vice president of operations for Saudi Arabia at IHG Hotels & Resorts, said a few years ago the hospitality industry was not attractive to Saudis, but that is changing largely due to the attention of the country's leaders.
He said IHG selects 12 Saudi nationals for training as general managers.
Dimitris Manikis, president of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said as Saudi Arabia embraces the arrival and expansion of Western hotel firms, so too must hoteliers embrace it. Wyndham has 13 hotels in Saudi Arabia.
The hotel industry needs “to be part of every initiative in the country, whether it is public or private. We need to embrace [Saudi] values, their DNA, or it does not matter how much you put in, your hotel will not work,” he said.
Rural Hurdles
The thrust of Vision2030 makes it clear that the initiative is not just about the big Saudi cities and not just about the growth of luxury hotels, conference speakers said.
For people living in secondary and tertiary cities and in mountain and coastal communities, change might be more shocking or profound, they added.
“We’re targeting historical cities that are not on the map as yet, where we will focus on telling a story. It is a longer-term strategy; we must have a balanced portfolio to extend experiences and it is critical to find the right partners,” Tetra Hospitality’s Kazim said. Millennium Hotels & Resorts has 13 opened hotels and another 30 projects being discussed or in some form of construction.
“For example, our hotel in Tabuk (in Saudi Arabia, 60 miles south of the Jordanian border) tells the story of the city’s 100-year railway. We are using our platform to promote secondary cities to show the depth of experiences the kingdom has to offer,” he added.
Moderator Salman Gasim, CEO of Jeddah-based, Saudi training and business advisory firm Swiss Hospitality, said some destinations being considered for tourism development, such as locations in Asir province in the south of the country, have as yet very little tourism-ready infrastructure.
Nasr said IHG also is “going into markets we are currently not in, such as the InterContinental brand to Abha. We operated in Saudi Arabia with only three brands for so long — InterContinental, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, but now we are bringing in Holiday Inn Express, Voco and Kimpton,” he said. The firm has 38 hotels in operation and 35 in the pipeline in the country.
Walia said his company is not only opening luxury hotels, even though the most emphasis of Vision2030 has been on the giga-projects’ high-end, boutique and spectacular accommodation offerings.
“We will soon have three new luxury brands in Saudi Arabia, including a St. Regis and a Ritz-Carlton on the Red Sea, but we’re also getting into the midscale space. Madinah has two Fairchild Inns, and Makkah will have the world’s largest Aloft — 1,000 rooms. In tertiary markets, there will be [multiple]-branded hotels with brands such as Four Points,” he said.