EMAD AZIZ Chairman of the Savoy Hotel and Resort

P.M. Communications: In the last two years, Dr. Nazif's government has been implementing a bold program of reforms. Have you felt changes in the tourism sector and if so, how?

Mr. Aziz: Absolutely, we have noticed a big difference, and we support Dr. Nazif in his efforts as we know the problems he is facing. Today, we can talk to the Ministers on the phone, tell them our problems and they can solve them straight away. The Minister of Tourism for example, is one of us and he knows very well what is going on in our sector.

In the old days, Egypt depended on Ministers who were all great academics with impressive qualifications and in theory everything worked very well, but in practice they knew nothing about the businesses affected by their decisions. Nowadays, the public officials are coming from the field and they understand that they are implementing changes that will affect the industries under their jurisdiction.

P.M. Communications: What do you think should be the government's priority in 2007 in order to help private businessmen further develop their businesses?

Mr. Aziz: The government should work on maintaining the stability and security, and further improving the investment environment so that investors can come and create employment opportunities. But the government cannot be responsible for everything from the day an Egyptian is born, like giving free education, subsidies for the food, etc. Rather than that, the economy and the whole country should be built by its own people, by the young Egyptians who are the army building the future of this country.

We need to understand that we are not operating under a social system anymore; we have to change the public sector mentality. We need to educate our people and make them understand that if we work we will make money, but if not, we will starve. We have to be fair with our employees and give them what they deserve. As employers, we have to prepare everything for them to work without any excuse, but after that, it is up to the workers to do a good job.

P.M. Communications: The Egyptians are well known for their traditional friendliness and hospitability, but in order to cater to the international high-end tourist, the services need to be upgraded. How are you facing this challenge in Sharm and at Savoy Hotels in particular?

Mr. Aziz: The number of hotels that were recently opened in Sharm was much higher than anyone expected. The owners of these new hotels did not develop their human resources the way we did here at Savoy. In Egypt, hotels usually have a Personnel Department instead of a Human Resource department, and they deal with their staff like they deal with machines.

At Savoy, we have made agreements with various universities in Ukraine, Russia, the UK and Estonia, and they send their 3rd year university students to Egypt to be trained. After that, they go back for the last year to acquire their degree and once they have graduated, many of them come back to work in our hotels.

Recently we went to some big cities outside of Cairo and Alexandria, like Assiut and we hired some graduates from English or French schools who could not get a job. It is like in England where you have unemployment problems in the North; we have the same problems here but in the South. There are not enough job opportunities in the South. We take graduates from these areas, train them and give them salaries that are 4 or 5 times higher than what they would normally earn. So we have university graduates working in housekeeping, restaurants, food & beverages.

These graduates are very happy with us as we treat them very well. We offer them very nice accommodation and living conditions. Each staff member's room could take up to 6 people, but we only have 3 people staying in each room. Our staff has their own swimming pool with the same sofas as the customers. They have their own gym, clubhouse, internet access, library, TV rooms, gardens, etc. It is actually as if they were living in a hotel.

We are also the biggest employer for females in Sharm El Sheikh and maybe all of Egypt. We have females in housekeeping and in the security department. It was very difficult to hire Egyptian and even Russian girls for our hotels here in Egypt. What we do is that we either go and meet the girls' parents or invite them here. The Russian students come with a teacher to make sure where they will be staying. Then every month the teacher comes and visits us to be sure that those students are being well looked after and that we keep a tight control. The girls have a special building for them with very nice rooms. We actually take really good care of every individual who is working for us. Our job is to take care of our staff so that they can take care of our guests.

P.M. Communications: Training staff so well often means that your team members are sought after as valuable assets from competitors. Have you faced this situation and if so, how do you deal with it?

Mr. Aziz: We have faced this many times. Actually this is a good sign and we do not really mind, as we need to pay something back to the society. I had 50 boys and girls from the South of Egypt and everybody told me that once they completed their training, half of them were going to leave. I told them: "So what?!"

The good thing is that most of the people who left us, actually wanted to come back because no one treated them as well as we did. And when we find out during the exit interview that someone wants to leave because we did not provide them with what they deserved, we take them back. But if they just wanted to leave because of greed, we never take them back.

As I told you, nobody treats their employees the same way we do. Once a month we have a big dinner for our staff where the managers serve them. The food that we serve is of excellent quality. We allow all our outlet managers and some of our staff to eat in the same restaurants as the guests.

We are investing in our human resources and we consider them as the software for our hotels. We have a beautiful hardware but if the right staff is not there, the whole place would be missing an element that makes Savoy so magical.

We also take care of the hygiene of our staff and this is very important. We send back everyone who is not groomed well enough to serve in a 5 star hotel. We ensure that the staff's way of life is a 5 star way of life because they have to live at a certain standard and this can only be genuinely portrayed in their work if they live at the same standard outside of work.

P.M. Communications: There is a very warm and unique feeling when you first arrive at the Savoy Hotel. Please tell us about the hotel's history and how you turned Savoy into the gem it is today.

Mr. Aziz: When we built this hotel we had a contract with Le Meridien, but for some reason that contract did not work. My dream was to establish an Egyptian company with a good international name in order to compete with top international management companies. At the beginning, many of our staff left because they wanted to work in big international chains. Today, the trend is the other way around and we have managers and staff from the top international management companies who are applying to work for us.

It would actually be a shame if Egypt, with all its tourism assets, did not have an internationally recognized, Egyptian-based company. We have dreams to expand regionally and to establish our hotels abroad, especially within the Middle East.

As for our hotel, it started in January 2001 and Savoy took over in February 2002. The interior decoration of the hotel was designed by Jean Pierre, who unfortunately has since passed away. Today, we work with Alan, who was a younger friend of Jean Pierre with a similar French style and he is helping us with our new designs. Although I am not a designer, I have traveled a lot and many ideas are actually mine and then we consult the professionals for the details.

We have not designed the property like a commercial hotel, but in a way someone designs his own home. It is like a boutique hotel on a grand scale. We have 450 rooms, 250 rooms to the left of the reception and 200 rooms to the right. We are the only hotel where you can go from your room to the beach and back in virtually no time at all. We have many golf carts, but no one uses them because we used the natural slope in such a nice way that it is pleasant to leisurely stroll through the lush greenery and natural environment of Savoy's property.

P.M. Communications: How does Savoy distinguish itself from other 5 star hotels in Sharm El Sheikh?

Mr. Aziz: We offer the best value for money. Obviously, we are not cheap but if you compare our prices to other hotels, you will notice that we are cheaper than the top 3 hotels in Sharm, while offering the same quality of service.

We also have another brand called Sierra, which is another great value for money. It is a 5-star hotel, only a 7 minute walk to the beach. Savoy has a very big beach so we took a part of it and designated it especially for the guests of Sierra. There are lots of British tourists coming to Sierra because they love relaxing by the pool, sometimes even more so than the beach, and we have beautiful pools in Sierra catering to this clientele. The hotel is less luxurious than Savoy but it is very friendly and lively. It caters to families and young travelers, as well. We have the most beautiful kid's club there and the most beautiful spa. We have three swimming pools, one of them indoors and another one filled with sea water. We have made many activities in Sierra because it is not located on the beach. We have buses to and from the beach all the time but most of the guests prefer the brief walk.

P.M. Communications: Could you please tell our readers more about the prestigious awards Savoy received at the World Travel Market in 2006?

Mr. Aziz: For the second time, we won the award for being 'The Leading Resort in Egypt' from the World Travel Market. We have also won the award of the 'Leading Holiday Villa in the Middle East'. I was actually disappointed that we were not awarded the Best Villa in the World…

We have 10 villas and every villa has a different design, a different style, a different idea, and a different theme. We have 2, 3 and 5 bedroom villas and we were very careful about every single detail in each villa. We took into consideration that some people would like modern villas while others might prefer more contemporary, classical, African or European designs. We also have the 'Cleopatra Villa' which we designed as a replica of a Pharaohnic temple from the outside façade all the way into the interior decoration.

P.M. Communications: What percentage of your business is coming from the British market and what is it that they specifically enjoy about your hotel?

Mr. Aziz: We have contracts with many British tour operators. 20% of our business comes from the British market and we would like to increase it to 35% in the near future.

As you know, the British are very keen about hygiene. We are the only hotel that has an OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) Department, which is responsible for the hygiene and safety. We also have an inspector who comes from the US to check on our safety procedures. We have equipment for fire fighting that does not exist anywhere else in Egypt.

In the hygiene department we have a device that tests the quality of water on a daily basis. We do not send water samples to Cairo for analysis and then evaluate the results after a week because a week is a long time and if there is any problem, the damage would already have been done. We analyze the water on a daily basis and we do regular check-ups. We have a department that checks the food, the storage and the stock. Usually anyone who touches the food has to undergo serious health examinations on a monthly basis to ensure that they meet strict Savoy standards.

P.M. Communications: H.E. President Hosni Mubarak has a house in Sharm and he has brought international leaders from around the globe to Sharm el Sheikh. How much do you think this exclusive exposure has helped in putting Sharm on the international tourism map?

Mr. Aziz: This helped to draw the attention of the world community to Sharm. Bill Clinton came here and was amazed by the beauty of the place. Then Tony Blair came five times to spend his winter holiday here. I think if this had happened anywhere else, it would have created even a bigger boom, we have not capitalized on it enough. I know that we had three unfortunate incidents, one in Sharm, one in Dahab and the third in Taba, but the security remains very high because the President is often here and because many high profile meetings take place in South Sinai. Sharm el Sheikh is a safe place where you really can relax and enjoy yourself and we really should promote this aspect much more.

I don't understand why the British do not know more about Sharm. They travel more than anybody else and Sharm is only 4 or 5 hours away from the UK. You can leave the rain and the gray weather behind and come to sit on the beach. British tourists who have been to Sharm used to say that they did not understand why they would ever fly 10 hours to get something which really is nothing compared to Sharm. Also because of the prices in England, to spend a night in a hotel or to have dinner in London will cost almost the same as a week in Sharm. I know that the British are now the number one tourists coming to Egypt, but for me this is nothing compared to the British who go to Spain, Greece or other islands. The British normally tend to like more cultural destinations like Luxor or Aswan, but I would like to see at least a million coming just to Sharm. This is why we need more activities and more nightlife. However, sometimes we have guests from England who want to sleep at 10 o'clock at night because they want to wake up at six o'clock to enjoy the sun and the sea. For this reason, Sharm cater to every person individually.

P.M. Communications: In 2006 over nine million tourists visited Egypt and the ambition of the Ministry of Tourism is to reach 14 million tourists by 2011. In your opinion, how sustainable is this growth?

Mr. Aziz: Personally, I would like to see 20 million tourists by 2011. Egypt deserves this, and if the country is willing to have more investment in the hotels, then why not?! Egypt offers year round tourism because we do not have the issue of seasonality.

If you look at the cultural tourism aspect, who does not want to see the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Valley of the Kings or Aswan?!! Then think of the history we have in Sinai and the religious tourism, you will find that it is truly amazing. There are so many things to do in Egypt and for these reasons, 20 million tourists is not much for Egypt.

On the other side, we are conscious of the effect that large numbers of tourist have on the environment and therefore, we try to teach the tourists not to touch anything at the historical sites. We have a similar problem here with tourists when they dive and want to touch the corals but we are keeping a very good eye on these things to preserve the natural beauty that is just off our shore.

P.M. Communications: Sharm el Sheikh has developed into a fully fledged international tourism destination in only 15 years. What are your impressions on the overall shape Sharm is taking?

Mr. Aziz: I think that Sharm will have about 60,000 rooms in the near future, up from the existing 42,000 rooms. I have always believed in a free economy which depends on supply and demand. If people want to develop, then I say we should let the number grow. If it was my decision, I would allow anyone who wants to build to come and build.

What Sharm needs to have is a real brand, but unfortunately, we still do not understand what a brand is here. We have to spend a lot of money on marketing, so when you see the advertisements, you will know that it is distinctly Sharm el Sheikh.

When Jumeirah Beach opened in Dubai, they spent 30 million USD launching this brand and I wish we had the same spirit over here. It is good to open new hotels in order to have more rooms, but for every new room you should be required to pay an amount of money for local taxes and this money should go to an international branding company to develop the brand of Sharm. When you do this it does not matter if you open 100,000 rooms because you already have a destination that people are aware of. In the old days when there were 10, 20 or 30 hotels, we did not have a proper destination, but people used to come once every few years. Back then, the demand was higher than the supply so the prices were high. Ten years ago, you would pay about 180 USD in Sharm for a minimalist room with bed and breakfast in a very low standard hotel.

The situation in Sharm is different now because there is an increased supply. Now, we need to match this supply with a better-advanced environment around Sharm by offering a high standard of services from the moment the guests arrive at the airport, to the streets, the taxi drivers, the transportation, the outlets, the restaurants outside the hotels, and an exciting nightlife. The British need nightlife and we have a lot of clubs in Sharm, but I still do not think it is enough because when you go clubbing in London, you go to 4 or 5 places in one night.

P.M. Communications: What values would you like Sharm el Sheikh to be associated with?

Mr. Aziz: I am in love with Sharm. Sharm is environmentally very friendly and very relaxing. There is something holy about it because in Sinai, God spoke to Moses. There is so much history and something sacred about Sharm. It is very romantic; if there is anybody who has a problem with his wife or her husband, I advise to go to Sharm instead of spending money on counseling.

Also, the weather is excellent. We might have a couple of days in the winter with slightly bad weather where you might need a jacket. But generally the weather is very nice. And in the summer it is hot but it is dry heat, so you are basically guaranteed to have nice weather on your holiday to Sharm el Sheikh.

P.M. Communications: Thank you very much for your comments.