Dr Ghassan Aidi, President of Royal Regency International Hotels in Washington, DC (7 Hotels and 2000 rooms) and President of Cham Palaces and Hotels in USA, Jordan and Syria (15 Hotels and +6000 rooms) spoke to The Goan as International Hotel & Restaurant Association President regarding the challenges faced by the tourism sector globally and how travellers want value for money.
How do you look at the tourism industry globally today?
Over the decade, we have seen the tsunami in South EastAsia, volcanoes and ash clouds disrupting flight traffic in Europe, earthquakesin Japan and Haiti, terror attacks in India and the USA, epidemics and warsbesides the H1N1 and swine flu threats. But nothing has deterred tourism.People continue to travel and tourism continues to grow.
From calamities to the global meltdown, hotels andrestaurants must be struggling?
I don’t believe that tourism related economies arestruggling financially. People across the globe are stressed and travel is whattakes away stress and anxiety. Increasein salaries or a loss of their job make people travel to leave their worriesbehind and people will continue to travel forever. Man wants to explore. Todaytourism is the number one industry in most countries and networking fromtourism has attracted investment in industrialization and other sectors. AlsoUN reports suggest that just 2.5% Co2 is emitted from the tourism industrycompared to other heavy industries that pollute air and water.
But today people spend less on a trip. Starred hotels arejust a fad while tourists are on an economy mode?
Definitely, a traveller wants his or her value for money.Tourists have cut short vacations to just ten days and wants to make the mostof it. Tourist spend wisely and live in small economic but confortable rooms.Travellers eat heavy meals in the morning and travel light the rest of the day.The industry has seen changes rapidly and only those countries will survivethat cater the best services at economy prices. Tourist eat at McDonalds or anyother fast food joint and spend the rest of the time sightseeing.
What really plagues this industry? Tourism related economiesare so volatile.
The worst experience for a traveller is when he has to paybills. There is beverage tax, alcohol tax, service tax, Value Added Tax, andthe list go on. Travellers hate it when they have tax1, tax 2, tax 3 and asuper expensive bill to foot. India needs to follow the example of Serbia orFrance which has dropped its taxes to 6% in the tourism sector and that too asingle tax instead of multiple taxes. Almost 26% Vat is charged from tourist.Tourism is a victim of taxes.
What do you feel Goa needs to do, to re-invent tourism alongthe coast?
Goa needs theme parks, water sports, and a golf coursebesides a massive convention center. I believe when the Former US PresidentBill Clinton visited Goa, he wanted to play golf and Goa did not have aprofessional golf course.
