Accor & HSAG open new doors of hospitality in Yemen [Archives:2002/13/Last Page]

BY YEMEN TIMES STAFF
With a presence in every market, from economy to luxury and business to leisure, and with 3,539 hotels in over 90 countries, Accor is truly a global leader in the hotel industry.
It’s that presence combined with the strong identity of its brands, which confirms its market leading position.
Now, the above figure has been increased by the Hayel Saeed Anam Group of Companies (HSAG), bringing two of the Accor finest hotels to Sana’a and Taiz.
Accor was first introduced to Yemen in 2001 when the HSAG opened the al-Saeed Mercure Hotel in Sana’a.
The hotel occupies a good location in the heart of the city just a few steps away from one of Sanaa’s finest commercial centers.
The hotel has 70 spacious rooms including 35 well-designed suites centrally air-conditioned, direct dial telephone, satellite TV, coffee shop, business center, meeting room, banquet hall and a restaurant.
The group will be inaugurating its 5-star Sofitel Hotel in Taiz on May 22 which will be one of the best hotels in Yemen by quality of the building and location, etc.
And still is there one of the most distinguished traits of the Accor group of hotels; quality service. “Taking care of our guests is our business,” said Mr. Didier G. A. Morel, General Manager of the al-Saeed Mercure and Sofitel Taiz Hotels.
Mr. Morel has been in Yemen for almost a year and he very much believes in the future of tourism in Yemen.
He told the Yemen Times that after the inauguration of the Sofitel Hotel in Taiz he would bring more tourists from abroad.
“For the first two years I will start with the Middle East. I am sure that there will be good potentials especially for people from Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Qatar, etc. to come here. For this I will be using our chain of hotels in these countries to make propaganda for Sofitel in Taiz,” said Mr. Morel.
“I have found that life here is different. Yemen gets advantage of the climate and its nature. The way Yemenis live and act is also different. People are very friendly and simple and they do things with respect. I am sure that in the future this will be one of the main points to attract tourists,” he added.
Commenting on Yemen’s tourist potentials Mr. Didier said improving Yemen’s image abroad and cleaning cities are the major points that should be tackled properly if tourism wanted to flourish.
“Many people in Europe know that Yemen is special and that there are many interesting things in it to see, but they are scared. Unfortunately, any simple incident in Yemen is heavily covered in an unfavorable manner by the Western media, when such incidents are internal problems between the government and some people,” he said. He added It was the responsibility of the Ministry of Tourism to show people abroad that this country is safe.
However, he thinks that the government has been acting wisely. “This will help improve the image and picture of Yemen aboard,” he observed.
Mr. Morel deplored the spread of plastic bags in many places. He said some places are not dirty but are covered with plastic bags which give a disgusting looking. “I have been to Mokha last weekend and I was shocked to see the small area totally covered with plastic bags, although the city is very small and can be easily managed and organized to be one of the finest tourist resorts in the country,” he said.
The government has made a lot of efforts to keep cities clean but such efforts are always cheapened when received by ignorance and negligence of people.
To make it a habit for people to keep their cities and areas clean Mr. Morel has suggested to make some incentives.
“In France, for example, there is an annual competition among towns on the best and most beautiful flowers they grow. This can be done here. A city can be divided into parts and a special kind of prize can be announced for the cleanest area, for example,” he suggested.
Before he ended his speech, Mr. Morel disclosed that the Hotel is planning to train local staff to work in the hotel instead of hiring foreigners. He said it was not nice to see most of the 5-Star hotels having more than 70% of their employees from abroad because there is no suitable hotelery school in Yemen.
Mr. Didier Morel has been working for the Accor Group of Hotels for more than 27 years.
He worked in many of the Gulf countries and France. He first came to the Gulf in 1975 when he was 20. He spent more then 17 years in UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, etc.


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