A macroeconomic overview of the Middle East and the strategies the hospitality industry must adopt to reach its true growth potential.

• External drivers of the Middle East tourism industry and the initiatives governments are taking to ensure growth.
• What the industry regulators are doing to help the operators, owners, investors and developers.
• Projection and opportunities in the Middle East region.
• Crafting the ultimate media campaign to attract regional and international tourism.
  

External catalysts can provide an economic boost for the GCC inbound tourism mix:

Airline perspective: Can the GCC airline industry take hospitality to new heights?

• The future of airline demand, booking patterns and upcoming routes, as well as new opportunities for building partnerships with tourism authorities to increase traffic capacity.
• Does the UAE have the technology and infrastructure to support its hospitality industry goals and targets?
  

Cruise perspective: Navigating the Gulf hotel industry through turbulent times.

• How well placed is the Gulf region for the cruise industry, in terms of growth and opportunity?
• Cruise tourism can play an important role in the region’s inbound tourism mix – but what are the factors that influence cruise lines in their deployment decisions?
  

Sports/entertainment perspective: Breaking records and striking chords with the regional hotel industry.

• The ever-changing evolution of the UAE’s economy is taking the next step in diversification and becoming sporting destination. What are the future trends and needs in terms of hotels and support facilities?
  

Coffee break

Pre - scheduled business meetings

Exhibition tour

Session: Market penetration and ROI

Optimisation of capital performance in order to guarantee returns for hotel owners.

• Ensuring hotel profits by creating a plan for sustained profit growth and improved return on investment performance. 
• Using market, revenue and cost trends to create a long-term outlook for hotel owners and investors.
• Innovation in technology to improve financial performance monitoring and analysis.
  

 Strategies to maximise market penetration within emerging and frontier markets.

• Hotel investment opportunities for MENA and LEVANT.
• The dos and don’ts for entering the Middle East expansion race.
• How well are UAE hotel operators using distinctive brand imaging to gain market share?
• How are changes in the current lending criteria of banks affecting the development of entrants?
  

Session: Operational Excellence

Management essentials to maximise revenue management.

Understanding the economic shifts in profits and strategies; staying on the optimum path to improve top-line revenue and bottom-line profitability.

• Using web 2.0 to effectively track, analyse, and maximise social networking platforms as an integral part of revenue management.
• The need to be more proactive and creative: Conducting more research, focusing on demand generators, developing relationships with the competition, redistributing market share, developing the hotel’s reputation and directing sophisticated channel management.
• The importance of developing strong revenue executives; the role of the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) in delivering the best revenue strategy, top-line revenue, and bottom-line profitability.
  

Delivering maximum profits through the HR director.

The transformation of the HR department from a cost centre into an important contributor to the overall profitability of an organisation:

• In-house training strategies to transform staff into hoteliers.
• Current challenges to keeping turnover to a minimum.
• Training the workforce to be more efficient.
  

Owner and operator partnership strategies.

• How to foster a win-win owner/operator relationship.
• Strategies to improve synergy.
• Sharing the risk and sharing the reward.
  

Linking owners and operators through asset managers.

• A necessary evil or an evident necessity?
• In-house versus outsourcing.
  

Strategies to support the non-core restaurant activities in the current climate.

• How to ensure GOP with F&B services.
• Does a hotel restaurant a drain or drive bottom-line revenue?
• Using language training to increase sales.
• Implementing tried-and-tested guest frequency programmes to increase traffic.
• Creating and designing a menu to sell your most profitable items.