Rotana Hotels & Resorts has taken the first step in developing a sales team dedicated to MICE.
Naeem Darkazally, the company’s area director of sales and marketing for Dubai & Northern Emirates has been selected to head up the company’s UAE-based meetings division and is currently preparing for phase one of Rotana’s MICE strategy, which will see eight sales staff recruited in the next couple of months.
“MICE is a very big word; it’s one of those words that doesn’t have an end, as it covers anything and everything. That’s why we need a sales team dedicated to this segment,” he said. “The team will be responsible for 68 function rooms, four grand ballrooms and 40-plus restaurants altogether.”
And, as more Rotana properties across all categories – resorts, business hotels, suites and the new mid-market Centro brand – come online, the team and the number of function rooms they represent will grow in proportion.
Rotana’s MICE business is currently growing by 60% annually, according to Darkazally, who predicted the segment could eventually account for 60-70% of Rotana’s business.
The company is currently upgrading its back office system to provide real-time inventory knowledge, which will prove useful to the meetings sales team.
The plan is to replicate the UAE MICE team in other locations as the business develops and more properties open.
Rotana had a major presence at last month’s inaugural GIBTM exhibition in Abu Dhabi where the key aim was to raise the profile of how the group’s properties can cater to meetings industry needs.
“Our diversity is our key selling point; we have enough properties in Dubai and the UAE to cater to large conventions, offering mid-market to five-star accommodation, as well as suites,” he said.
Darkazally predicted that Dubai would become a “proper MICE destination” by 2009.
“Dubai in the next three years will pick up some 10,000 rooms, allowing the emirate to stage some big events and some big groups. In the last 10 years, we have been struggling to find space for large conventions,” he explained.
Darkazally’s sales team is already out on the road speaking to both corporate clients directly, as well as event and meetings planners, in a bid to secure business.
“By the end of 2008, when our area (the UAE) becomes 13 hotels, we should have a 15-strong team on board,” Darkazally added.
He said Rotana would boast 3000 rooms in the country by 2009, compared to 2400 at present.
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