Grand Hyatt Muscat is an opulent city-resort set in the heart of the Muscat’s diplomatic area, along the sandy Shatti Al Qurum beach overlooking the azure waters of the Gulf of Oman.  The hotel’s remarkable design perfectly combines traditional architecture with every modern convenience for business and leisure travelers.  The hotel’s 280 rooms and suites are spacious, and elegantly furnished.  All rooms offer unique views of either the hotel’s landscaped gardens, the affluent surrounding residential area, the ocean or the glorious Hajar mountain range.  Stylish dining and entertainment venues offer a wide range of choices. Oman Vistas spoke to 
Zelna Möller, Director of Sales Grand Hyatt Muscat

How was the tourism season in 2007, especially for your hotel?

Our business grew by 10.8% from 2006 to 2007.  Main contributors to the growth in numbers include more development in the area, increased marketing exposure around the world, and refurbishment projects of 2 major 5-star hotels in the city.  We were also in a fortunate position to see our average room rates growing by 25% from the previous year.

What new initiatives are taken to boost occupancy figures?  Anything like new restaurants or so on?

Grand Hyatt Muscat has been working closely with the Ministry of Tourism in Oman, our key trade partners, local corporates and airlines to achieve growth in tourism arrivals. 

We have attended various international trade shows to promote Oman as an international tourist destination.  We furthermore work closely with the international representative offices of Oman Tourism in Australia, France, the GCC countries, Germany and the UK.

In terms of promoting business to the leisure and MICE markets, we have been working closely with our key suppliers, hosting familiarization trips and also working with key press and media in these areas.

With regard to initiatives within Grand Hyatt Muscat, a lawn was recently added to the front of the hotel, close to the sea and offering deck chairs and outside catering possibilities to enhance the Grand Hyatt experience for all guests.

We have also launched all-inclusive packages.  At the Rooftop Grill, guests can dine for from R.O.22,000++, including all beverages, while, when dining at Marjan Restaurant, they can enjoy an all-inclusive beverage package combined with a set menu for from R.O.25,000++ per person.

Where do your guests mostly come from?

There is a clear division between the purpose of stay of our guests, with 70% of them from the corporate market, both international and local.  The remaining 30% of our guests are from the leisure market.  Geographically, around 45% of our guests are from the GCC market, around 15% come from the UK, 10% are from Western Europe and 10% are from the US.

What are the major MICE activities planned for 2008 and do you have a strategy in place to develop this market segment?

Our main focus is to work closely with Hyatt international sales offices around the world, our local MICE-partners, the Ministry of Tourism and our airline partners to grow MICE business into the destination. Key activities include hosting familiarization trips to Oman in order to showcase our meeting spaces and incentive programs, attending and showcasing our product at key trade shows targeting the MICE market, and launching creative incentive programs that are build around the clients needs.

What is your forecast for Omani tourism in the future?

I believe there will be major growth within the segment.  The government also has a drive to expand the economy away from the traditional oil and gas industry and their focus is on Tourism.  Major projects have been awarded for hotel developments around the region, i.e. The Wave, Yiti-project, Yenkit-project, As Sifah-project, developments on the east coast and various other areas around the country.  This will solve the current issue the country faces regarding limited room supply.

The country’s local carrier also has plans for major expansion to key feeder destinations in Europe and the Far East that will indirectly drive business into Oman.

Are you expecting any downturn compared to last year due to the global financial crisis?

It is too early to comment on the impact of the credit crunch on our business.  We operate with very short lead-times, so we will most likely feel the impact of the crisis this November/ December.    Feedback from our key partners within the region show that the impact has reached destinations like Dubai already where a few incentive groups have been cancelled for 2009.  We remain positive about our situation here in Oman and hope that it will not affect our current trends in business.