Radisson: Hotel with a viewBy Editor . 12.03.2009Conrad Meier, the new General Manager of the Radisson SAS Daugava Hotel, has more than 15 years of international hotel experience.But, as he says, he has been in this trade since the day he was born as he comes from a family of six generations of hoteliers. He started to work for Radisson SAS in 1997 and since then he’s been based in Cairo and Taba in Egypt, Klaipeda and Vilnius in Lithuania, and Kiev. Conrad arrived in Riga to take control at the Radisson SAS Daugava on December 17 and he agreed to share his thoughts about the latest trends and events in the business. – What is your first impression about the hotel business in Latvia compared to the other Baltic states? – In response to an increasing number of tourists visiting Latvia, the number of new hotels grew rapidly – 20 new hotels in 2007, 10 new hotels in 2008. That was never the case before. Do we still need new hotels? – We have reached saturation point all around the Baltics considering today’s harsh economic realities. It is easy to open something new if you have the money, but the difficult part is to manage it professionally and be successful. You see this especially when there is a crisis and many things go downwards. There is sufficient number of rooms available in Lithuania and in Vilnius and the same applies to the hotel market situation in Riga. – Do you believe this is true in all segments? Last year we organized a conference regarding the potential of Riga to organize large-scale business events and conferences and your colleagues claimed that there were not enough hotels that specialized in this business. How do you see Radisson SAS competing with other wellknown chains in the region, for example Reval Hotels, which have been developing their own large conference facilities? – I don’t think that Reval Hotels took the lead. What they did was add new facilities. They’ve brought a fantastic product to the market. In my opinion we have to promote Riga as a destination, but it is not only a hotel’s job to attract groups and delegations for major events – we can only do this if hoteliers and the government collaborate. A hotel has to work together with the government; it’s not only hotels that attract guests to a city. There are parts of the infrastructure and places of culture that have to be sufficiently maintained and developed by the government to be attractive and successful. We’re not just talking about one event that would gather 300, 400 or 1,000 people once a year; Riga should be on the map for business 40 weeks a year. Then everybody will profit from meetings. International tourism experience shows that to promote a city successfully it needs efficient tourism boards and city visitor boards, andusually these are partly financed by the government. If you don’t do that you can’t attract a large meetings and events organizers clientele to the city and ensure certain consistency for larger conference groups/ events. But yes, I think Riga is not that far yet compared to, say, Tallinn, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Zurich. All four of these cities havefantastic professional tourism boards. – Have you noticed interesting or innovative ideas other countries have used to attract tourists in your experience? – As I said, Tallinn, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Zurich , where the government can work together with local companies and trendsetters, have been very successful. They have strong marketing activities, altering according to changing needs and trends. They also have excellent image banks for highquality photos for the press to promote the country. Copenhagen is a great example, where the city works closely together with well known brands like Fritz Hansen and Bang&Olufsen. They don’t attract tourists to Copenhagen merely as a destination, because a city as a destination only can be attractive when it is promoted in the right way.
– Have you considered lowering the prices in your restaurant to make it more affordable these days?
– In a few words, why stay at the Radisson SAS when there are so many alternatives in the city? – Compared to other hotels all over the Baltics our view is one of the best. It’s significant that the majority of state or government delegations, VIPs and a lot of superstars have stayed with us since day one. When George W Bush visited Latvia he stayed here, because these visits demand a high level of security and a high level of professional service that we can meet. Also we have a world-class fitness center with a pool and we have all the treatments – beauty salon and massages. And again we are speaking not only about Reval or Radisson, we are talking about Riga as a destination. We need hotels with excellent international level service standards to attract tourists. Competition is good for the market. There are not only Mercedes cars driving on the streets, and there are different opportunities for everyone. Let the guest decide where he wants to stay – healthy competition is good. maryratana kumari 10.06.2010 12:58hi sir their was a mail from you hotel ,. i have send my cv to sir pls tell me the result Reply |
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