hotels articles

Marrakech, a former French colony and a popular leisure tourism destination in the heart of Morocco, has ambitious plans to develop tourism: plans triggered by the national Vision 2010.

Due to strong seasonality and recent increases in supply, most properties are achieving moderate occupancy and the leisure demand driven destination faces increasingly price-sensitive customers. The majority of the room supply is in local ‘Riads’ or other operations of the maison d’hôtes type, but international hotel groups are showing increasing interest in Marrakech.

The local tourism strategy aims to benefit the national Vision 2010 and has a specific plan for tourism development in Marrakech that is expected to increase the room supply by approximately 7,000 by 2010. This further increase in room supply is expected to dilute demand in the short to medium term, although the planned open skies policy, if launched as planned, is foreseen as having a positive impact on both airport arrivals and bednights. In addition to traditional hotel supply, investors are increasingly looking for opportunities in the secondary home market through fractional ownership or timeshare developments. We discuss opportunities in these areas later in this article.

Marrakech

Marrakech is just north of the Atlas Mountains in central Morocco. The city is important because of its geographical location; it is the place where the north and south of the country meet, and a number of major highways intersect. It is the capital of the Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz region, has 840,000 inhabitants, is a former capital of the country and is one of four imperial cities in Morocco. Marrakech is a commercial and tourist centre and the main industries are agriculture and food processing, wool and leather goods such as carpets, and mining. Marrakech is a Berber city with some Arabian influences.

The vision of the Moroccan government is to have 10 million visitors by 2010 – currently the number stands at approximately 5 million – and it has developed ‘Plan Azur’ as a framework to achieve this. Part of this plan involves the development of six new tourist resorts – five on the Atlantic coast and one on the Mediterranean coast.

In Marrakech, Vision 2010 has led to the establishment of a project known as Aguedal, which is located to the south of the city on the edge of the urban perimeter bordered to the east by the road to Ourika, to the south by wasteland and to the west by the projected extension of France Avenue. The site is approximately one kilometre from the existing La Mamounia Hotel.

Tourism to Morocco increased year on year until 2001, when the events of 11 September had a significant effect on visitor numbers, especially as Morocco is a Muslim country. The figures for 2003 show that the war in Iraq and the bombings in Casablanca on 16 May 2003 in particular had a further effect on demand for accommodation in Marrakech. Demand picked up strongly in 2004, helped by new ‘no-frills’ direct flights by Atlas Blue from ten major European cities, including London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Geneva, Milan and Zürich.

Why the Pope kisses the ground, and why passengers want to fix you up with their sisters on El Al. A new airline survey reveals all to Ian Jarrett

Regular readers of this column will know that Ian steers clear of travel polls and surveys because it figures that there are too many of them, and most are not worth the time of day.

But the latest Zagat.com survey covering 55 airlines that fly internationally makes some interesting observations about the quality of the airlines we fly.

New York based Zagat bases its 2005 Airline Survey on the opinions of 5,277 people who reported taking an average of 4.8 international flights per year, and reflects the experiences of passengers aboard a total of some 25,000 international flights per year or – as Zagat says – about 70 flights per day.

“Call it the plane truth…a vivid portrait of passengers’ discontent in the skies,” says Zagat.

Airlines based outside the United States were the stars of the survey. The overall ratings of US airlines fell at least 30 percent from the previous survey in 2001. Delays and cancellations were the biggest complaint; 42 percent of respondents cited those concerns.

The age breakdown of survey participants indicates that it is not just Grumpy Old People who believe many airlines could do a lot better. Only 17 per cent of those polled were over 60 years. Almost two thirds were 20-40 year-olds.

Said one participant in the survey, “Today’s fliers are the uncomfortable served the inedible by the indifferent.”

Wrote another traveller, “This is why the Pope kisses the ground every time he deplanes.”

It wasn’t all bad news, however. International carriers that fared best in the survey were Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Cathay Pacific for economy class, and SIA, Cathay and Virgin Atlantic Airways for premium service. No surprises there.

Other observations: On service on American Airlines: “Flip-flops” from “efficient and courteous” to Rhett Butler-like – they simply “don’t give a damn”.

On El Al: “More safety precautions than Fort Knox make for peace of mind if not peace and quiet: toddlers screaming, everyone wants to talk to you “or fix you up with their sisters” aboard this carrier.”

ON KLM: “Service and food get mixed marks and some find quarters cramped – maybe no surprise from the land that thinks ‘wooden shoes are comfortable’.”

With so much focus on Chinese New Year and, in his neck of the woods, Australia Day, it was easy for Ian Jarrett to miss Great Grumpy Day in Britain.

A formula created by a part-time tutor at Cardiff University shows that foul weather, debts, fading Christmas memories, failed resolutions and a lack of motivation all conspire to make people in the UK miserable on January 24 – Grumpy Day - each year.

My wife has been known to refer to me as Mister Grumpy on many occasions but I don’t think I ever get as bad as the Brits in their post-Christmas spending splurge depression – nor the Germans, who have been saddled with the reputation as the grumpiest people on earth.

Just recently Germans responding to a national TV and billboard campaign to eradicate grumpiness have invaded blog-land. Many people, if the blogs are anything to go by, are feeling pretty grumpy about the “Du Bist Deutschland (You Are Germany) ad campaign.

The advertising guru who dreamed up the campaign probably thought it was a good idea at the time. After all, with the economy struggling, unemployment high and Germans worried about the invasion of English soccer fans for this year’s World Cup tournament, spirits needed to be lifted.

Ad agencies, newspapers and a handful of celebrities donated some €30 million-worth of advertising space to the non-profit campaign, which featured German greats such as Beethoven and Einstein.

“Du bist Deutschland” was the motto on every picture. “You are Germany.” You are talented, beautiful, intelligent, and strong.

Jean-Remy von Matt, a Belgian, headed the German ad firm that spearheaded the campaign. His mistake – if, indeed, it was a mistake - was to take offence when bloggers lampooned his work.

According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, von Matt ridiculed bloggers in an internal memo, claiming blogs were “the toilet walls of the Internet.”

Von Matt later apologized for his attack on free expression but he was still grumpy that an internal email had swirled around blogosphere.

What I find interesting about this whole affair is that blogging in Germany has really taken off in the wake of the ad campaign.

So perhaps von Matt was being smarter than his critics think by comparing blogs to toilet walls. It got the campaign a lot of publicity.

INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

The UK travel sites HolidayDeals.com and LateRooms.com, which represents hotels and property owners worldwide, have signed a worldwide hotel deal.

Under the agreement Holiday Deals will offer over 250,000 discount, late availability rooms from LateRooms on its web site at http://www.holidaydeals.com. In addition Holiday Deals will promote LateRooms’ Holiday Properties service, featuring over 50,000 flats, villas and holiday apartments.

With more than 175 locations in major cities, suburban areas, resorts, and airports, it’s easy to find an Embassy Suites Hotel near your next destination. From big cities including New York, Chicago, and Atlanta to resort areas such as Lake Tahoe and Boca Raton, and even outside the U.S. in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Canada, and our newest addition, Mexico City, opening Spring 2006. Embassy Suites’ wide range of locations will conveniently meet your travel needs, whether it is for business, pleasure, or a mix of both.

Whichever Embassy Suites Hotel you stay at, you’ll always get a bundle of amenities that include a spacious two-room suite, complimentary cooked-to-order breakfast, and a nightly Manager’s Reception* where you can mix and mingle with other guests in our open atrium environment. Embassy Suites is also expanding into new markets, introducing many more innovative services, such as EmbassyDirect Registration Kiosks[TM], our self-service check-in, already in 45 hotels. The automated technology will appear in 75 percent of hotels by year-end 2005, and in 100 percent of hotels by June 30, 2006.

Every time you stay at an Embassy Suites Hotel, you’ll have the chance to earn Hilton HHonors[R] Hotel Points & Miles[R]. For locations and reservations, please call 1-800-Embassy or visit embassysuites.com. If you book your next visit to Embassy Suites online at embassysuites.com, you’ll get Our Best Rates. Guaranteed.

Fuelled by record visitor volume, a thriving economy and significant additions to the tourism product, New York City is adding nearly 5,000 new hotel rooms to its current inventory of 70,723 by the end of 2007.

Hoteliers are developing properties that represent exciting new trends in New York City’s hotel product, such as chic budget, sophisticated boutique and comfortable value-priced hotels.

Development patterns show the strength of downtown Manhattan, Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens as visitor destinations, with 18 properties slated for construction or renovation in these areas.

In addition to new properties from the Marriott, Hilton and Starwood brands, celebrity hoteliers including Andre Balazs (The Standard), Ian Schraeger (Gramercy Park Hotel), Jason Pomeranc (6 Columbus Circle and to be named Allen Street), Vikram Chatwal (The Night Hotel) and Robert De Niro (The Down town Hotel) are investing in New York’s tourism product.

The City is expected to close 2005 with an 87% occupancy rate and 22 million room nights booked, an increase of one million over 2004.

“Many of the new properties, in diverse locations such as Staten Island, TriBeCa, the Lower East Side, Queens and Harlem, will anchor the start of economic and business development in these exciting new neighborhood destinations and will introduce global visitors to new experiences in the Big Apple,” said Cristyne L. Nicholas, president and CEO of NYC & Company.

Tourism is a powerful economic engine for New York City that generates $21 billion in direct spending, $12 billion in wages and $5 billion in city, state and federal tax revenues. New York City welcomed nearly 40 million visitors in 2004, whose spending helped support over 300,000 jobs in all five boroughs.

Among the new hotels under development right now are the following properites:

Blue Moon Hotel, containing 22 suites at 100 Orchard St., will be Manhattan’s only kosher hotel. The property will be located in a beautifully restored tenement building and will open in 2005.

The Hampton Inn Manhattan/Seaport at 320 Pearl St. will contain 65 rooms and open in December of 2005.

Vikram Chatwal’s The Night Hotel will contain 72 rooms at 132 W. 45 th St. and will also open in December of this year.

The first New York Residence Inn by Marriott, at West 39th Street and Avenue of the Americas, will be an extended stay, 357-suite hotel and will be built as part of the Bryant Park Tower.

The Courtyard by Marriott, at 410 E. 92nd St., will contain 210 rooms and 16 suites and is scheduled to open in early 2006.

The standard for customer service will never be the same.

Recently I was asked to speak with a group of managers from a large hotel chain about the nature of competition in the changing commercial environment. For the exercise, I assumed the persona of a sales rep from St. Louis staying in a Hartford, Connecticut, property. Each of the hotel managers, by the way, was empowered to run their individual properties as though they owned them.

The challenge for the managers was complex. Within the larger context of the hotel’s policy, financial expectations and performance guidelines, they had to “customize” my guest experience and make me think the entire chain revolved around my visit. I told them that, minimally, they should have a comprehensive log of my preferences from past visits (feather pillow, temperature pre-set at 72 degrees, etc.).

Next, the room should remind me as much of St. Louis as possible. A current St. Louis newspaper should be on the desk and/or an up-to-the minute printout of local news, sports scores and business news. St. Louis TV stations should be fed live into my room. And room service should be prepared in the style of top St. Louis restaurants.

While these services might seem arcane and exorbitant, I assured the managers that if they weren’t prepared to deliver that level, their chain would fail over time. Why? Because customers have learned to expect this kind of micro-customized media provision from dealing with such companies as OnStar or WorldCom or even Amazon.com.

No, those companies aren’t ones hotels typically consider their competitors. But the bottom line of competition today is that your direct competitor isn’t just someone selling the same goods or services you sell-it’s anyone selling any goods or services to anyone you sell to, or want to sell to in the future. At the very least, these unrecognized competitors can raise the bar (if I can get a book from Amazon overnight, why can’t I get everything overnight?), and one day they Just may want to steal your customers. If you don’t understand this new definition of competition, odds are your business already has one foot in the grave.

It may be helpful to think of competition in biological terms. In the same way physics was the dominant science in the information epoch, biology is becoming the dominant science of the post-information epoch. Biology reveals four types of relationships in an ecosystem: competitive, symbiotic, predatory and parasitic. The same four relationships exist in economies. Today, businesses may even engage in all four simultaneously.

So who’s your greatest competitive threat? The guy down the block, or the guy across the planet you’ve never heard of? I’ll bet you know when the guy down the block is coming after you, but it’s the attack by the unknown business operating in a totally different field that may pose the biggest threat.

INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

UK theme park Alton Towers has improved its online hotel booking system through the use of Macromedia Flex from Macromedia Inc (Nasdaq:MACR), a software company.

According to Macromedia its Flex solution has made the booking process faster and easier, providing a flexible, scalable solution and enabling users to find all the information required to make a booking from the website.

About 3% of bookings for Alton Towers Hotels were made online through the previous system, in comparison to over 10% with the new Flex solution. In addition the conversion rate for site visitors going on to book online has increased from 5% to 10%.

The online hotel booking system and website were designed and implemented by Alton Towers with the help of Monochrome, a new-media agency providing Enterprise Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Monochrome said that moving from HTML to RIA expanded the level of service offered, and claimed that Flex reduced the time to market significantly, while ensuring user interactivity and smooth transactions.

GOING OUT OF TOWN TENDS TO MEAN GETTING OUT OF SHAPE. BUT IF jet lag doesn’t keep you from hitting the gym, your hotel’s fitness digs just might, especially because most hotels are lucky to have even one broken treadmill and a dumbbell rack that goes up to 30 pounds. Next time, look out for your body before you make travel plans, and stay at one of these eight hotels–each of which offers the best facilities in its respective city.

Chicago

THE FAIRMONT ($1619-$289 A NIGHT)

The hotel sits on Grant Park (a mecca for runners) and adjoins the Lakeshore Athletic Club Illinois Center–one of the best-equipped clubs in the Windy City (20 bucks to enter).

Boston

THE RITZ-CARLTON, BOSTON COMMON ($295-$495 A NIGHT)

The Ritz is located on beautiful Boston Common and sits next to The Sports Club/LA–a 100,000-square-foot supergym offering everything from boxing to squash, along with an amazing workout facility. And it’s all on the house if you’re staying at The Ritz.

LE PARKER MERIDIEN ($295 A NIGHT)

Its swank digs are atop the 17,000-squarefoot Gravity, Fitness and Spa in midtown. Admission is complimentary for hotel guests, giving you easy access to a gym, racquetball court, and rooftop lap pool.

Los Angeles

SUNSET MARQUIS ($299 A NIGHT)

The luxury suites and private villas are near a very unusual Equinox Gym–decked out in 1950s-nightclub decor. Guest passes are available at the hotel and are offered based on availability.

San Francisco

COURTYARD MARIOTT, IN NEARBY LARKSPUR ($139-$189 A NIGHT)

The newly renovated hotel is across the street from 24 Hour Fitness ($7 a visit). It’s a great value when you don’t want to pay premium San Fran hotel rates.

Washington, D.C.

HOTEL ROUGE ($139-$279 A NIGHT)

It’s fun to stay at this boutique hotel. No, really–the YMCA National Capital is nearby ($5 for admission); it houses a junior Olympic pool, climbing wall, and indoor track.

Dallas

WYNDHAM ANATOLE ($129-$299 A NIGHT)

Everything really is bigger in Texas, starting with this hotel–one of the largest convention centers in the Southwest. The nearby Verandah Club and Spa is equally huge and fully equipped. Full access costs $15.

Vancouver

COAST PLAZA HOTEL & SUITES ($190 A NIGHT)

You’ll be staying on top of the Denman Fitness Center (a full-on gym with complimentary admission for guests).

Ron Rosell is the president of Fit for Business, LLC (fitforbusiness.com).

It was a night of glitz and glamour as the winners of the Best Business Hotels in Asia Awards were announced last month at the Portman Ritz Carlton, Shanghai.

More than 300 guests attended the gala Awards ceremony held at the Portman, the winner of this year’s Overall Best Business Hotel in Asia Award.

As well as featuring a guest list comprised of top level executives from Asia’s hospitality industry, several high profile Shanghai Government figures also attended the ceremony–a key indicator of the growing prestige and importance the Best Business Hotel Awards in Asia concept has throughout the region.

Shanghai Vice Mayor Zhou Mu Yao was the keynote guest, and delivered a speech that was well received by Awards attendees. The director of the Shanghai Tourism Administration Commission, Yau Ming Bao, was another special guest.

As can be expected when two high profile Shanghai figures are in attendance, the Best Business Hotels in Asia Awards ceremony attracted a strong contingent of local media, including print, radio and television.

Guests at the Awards were treated to several displays during the cocktail reception at the beginning, including noodle makers, Chinese calligraphy and shadow cutting.

Guests received another treat during the Awards ceremony itself, when the world-renowned Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra performed a piece during the main course.

The Best Business Hotels in Asia Awards are now in their fifth successful year, and was initiated by Business Asia magazine and jointly developed with leading financial news services network Bloomberg Television. More than 12,000 votes from business travellers were received for this year’s Awards.

HONOUR ROLL
2002

OVERALL BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN ASIA
BEST BUSINESS HOTEL IN CHINA
Winner: The Portman Ritz-Carlton, Shanghai

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN AUSTRALIA
Winner: Grand Hyatt Melbourne

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN HONG KONG
Winner: Conrad Hong Kong

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL IN INDIA
Winner: Oberoi Towers

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN INDONESIA
Winner: Mandarin Oriental Jakarta

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL IN JAPAN
Winner: The Westin Tokyo

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN MALAYSIA
Winner: Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN NEW ZEALAND
Winner: The George

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN THE PHILIPPINES
Winner: The Peninsula Manila

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN SINGAPORE
Winner: The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL IN
SOUTH KOREA
Winner: The Rirtz-Carlton Seoul

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN TAIWAN
Winner: The Westin Taipei

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN THAILAND
Winner: The Oriental Bangkok

BEST BUSINESS HOTEL
IN VIETNAM
Winner: Hotel Sofitel Plaza Saigon

BEST NEW HOTEL
Winner: JW Marriott Jakarta

BEST AIRPORT HOTEL IN ASIA
Winner: The Pan Pacific Hotel International