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Gostelow Report: Celebrations, challenges for Shangri-La in Middle East

“The World Cup started last Friday, June 15, and it could not have been better timed for the hotel world. Ramadan ended this year on Thursday, June 14, and we were therefore all ready to go into football mode. Our Ramadan tents evolved into sports bars with hardly any investment,” says Shangri-La International Hotel Management Ltd’s Executive Vice President Michael Cottan, based in Dubai, UAE.

Michael Cottan takes a break in Ras al Khaimah, UAE
Michael Cottan takes a break in Ras al Khaimah, UAE

Ramadan ran for a month, its timing judged by the moon. As always, interpretations of basic Islamic rules, which include fasting from sunrise to sunset, vary from country to country. Those on fasts dine and drink at sunset, at a meal called iftar. They dine again before sunrise, at suhoor. Hotels typically erect enormous Ramadan tents to facilitate feeding sometimes hundreds of hungry people simultaneously.

“During the first week of Ramadan it is a little quiet as families visit each other, but then people get used to the new routine and start entertaining their friends. By the end of the month, and the celebration of Eid, the end of fast festival, it is particularly jovial. At one of our properties, Shangri-La Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi, which has 213 keys, we typically served 300 meals a night, iftar and suhoor, throughout Ramadan,” he explained.

“This year the return on investment in our tents will be very good. It seems as if everyone across the Middle East is football-mad so our tents will become sports bars,” said Cottan with a laugh.

Cottan is in charge of 15 hotels totalling 4,500 rooms, with a healthy pipeline that includes Manama, the capital of Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia – for which he is sourcing Arabic speakers, an absolute necessity in the Holy City of Makkah, which he himself cannot visit.

As for many hospitality leaders based in the Middle East, one challenge is the enormous growth of competition, not only from global giants but also fast-growing local companies.

Another perennial challenge is talent. The metaphorical explosion of new properties throughout his entire region, and the growth in the cruise industry, have together exhausted traditional supplies. “We strive to maintain a balance of expat labor and local talent, and we invest in the training and development of the local staff in each destination and integrating them in the hotel,” he explained.

He is also aware that customers are changing (“they are becoming more demanding, less patient and arguably not quite so polite,” he admitted, wondering if social media are at least partly to blame).

Cottan was in Dubai before, as F&B at InterContinental Dubai back in 1982. Food costs are pretty much the same but there are significant differences. “It was difficult, then, to get some people at management level to come to the Middle East to work, because of transport and communications challenges – today, despite geopolitics there is acceptance that volatility can impact life anywhere.   Personally, I think the UAE continues to be a great place to live,” he said.

He speaks as a hospitality pioneer in the region. Thirty years ago only hotels could get alcohol licenses, which meant international visitors obviously tended to eat in. Hotels had several restaurants, invariably including French fine-dining. His hotel then was on Dubai’s Creek, the place where trading boats left for Iran. “We lived well, I remember someone’s significant birthday breakfast, which was as much caviar as we could all eat, with lots of Champagne.”

Food remains a particular interest for Cottan, and he is proud that Shangri-La’s buy-into Golden Circle Table, introduced three years ago, constitutes 30% of all Shangri-La’s F&B revenue throughout the Middle East. “Overall, celebrity chefs and gourmet dining, both of which have had a long run, are on the way out. More social dining is becoming the norm throughout the area,” he explained.

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