Four Seasons Hotels Egypt has identified MICE bus-iness as a key growth market going forward.
The company has already established a dedicated MICE sales team, based in Cairo, in addition to its core sales team, and is working on creative and themed packages to lure the lucrative European and North American markets.
“This is becoming a very valuable market, and ultimately means strong business from the US,” said Four Seasons Hotels Egypt’s senior director of marketing, Cesare Rouchdy. “Our MICE team covers Europe and sells our four properties [in Egypt], providing dedicated literature and attending the appropriate international travel trade shows.”
Rouchdy said the company’s approach to meetings was creative and thorough.
“We try to imagine that we are running the meeting and provide everything that could possibly be needed, such as themed food and beverage,” he said.
“We offer a variety of activities to interest the spouses of meeting participants, such as customized day packages at the spa, cooking classes, fortune telling, tours of Harraneya, famed for its handmade carpets, and sailing down the Nile.”
Meetings facilities at Four Seasons’ Egyptian properties are wide-ranging. Four Seasons Cairo at The First Residence features four meeting rooms that can be used separately or combined together to form the 382m² Four Seasons room, catering to 270 people for a reception and 220 people for dinner. Cairo’s International Conference Centre is located just 15 minutes from the hotel.
For more leisure-orientated events and meetings, the Four Seasons Resort Sharm El Sheikh boasts a ballroom with three breakout rooms, function space on the upper reef lawn, and boat trips and Bedouin dinners for groups.
“We have purchased land outside of the boulevard, so we are planning an 18-hole PGA Championship golf course. There will also be a golf club, another swimming pool, villas and more food and beverage outlets,” explained general manager Luca Allegri. “Currently 2% of our business is groups, but we started implementing our MICE strategy last year and expect strong growth as we provide an ideal setting for this market.”
Meanwhile, the brand new Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria at San Stefano, Egypt features a ballroom that can accommodate up to 900 people and is “the preferred venue for a variety of events, from small board meetings to gala social occasions”, according to the hotel’s director of PR, Sara Ibrahim.
Follow us on
