Back to Basics
By Ehtesham Shahid • Aug 3rd, 2009Selim el-Zyr, the president and chief executive officer of Rotana Hotels, tells Ehtesham Shahid about the hospitality sector and how it can duck the downturn.
You recently bagged several awards at the World Travel Awards event. How does it feel to receive an award in these difficult times?
Every company, every individual, needs recognition for whatever he does. An award is one way the market, customers, or specialized institutions recognize your efforts in reaching a certain level of professionalism.
How do you view the difficulties facing your business in 2009?
It has been challenging, but in every depressed market there is an opportunity. It is an opportunity for us now to go back to the basics, to go back to normality. Everything went berserk at once - prices, rates, salaries, costs. Everything was hitting the roof and for no reason.
But even before that set in you had started moving into Abu Dhabi, which is comparatively better off. Was that anticipation or calculation on your part?
We actually didn’t move, we started in Abu Dhabi. But obviously the demand three to four years ago was mainly in Dubai; Abu Dhabi was somehow stagnant. Around four to five years ago, Abu Dhabi started picking up. So we didn’t shift gear and go to Abu Dhabi, we were in Abu Dhabi, but we opened our eyes to the opportunities that existed - the low-hanging fruit was in Abu Dhabi.
