Barbara Walters chats with Forward Syria
Swaying between art and seduction
Discussing monetary policy with the man in charge
Where the earth screams in horror
10/10/2011 - Issue 55
Tourism is Syria’s new oil
Four Seasons Hotel's Sven Wiedenhaupt speaks to Forward SyriaTourism is on everybody’s mind in Syria nowadays, given that what hurts in that sector trickles down practically throughout every other sector in Syria.
Syrian hotels are suffering, but so are tour operators, restaurants, airline companies, and Damascene sweet manufacturers. Forward Syria spoke to Sven Wiedenhaupt, the General Manager of the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus—which since its inception six years ago, has catered to upper-end tourists visiting the Syrian capital.
With business meetings, conferences, and luxury tourism all in collective decline, the Four Seasons too is suffering from the crisis that is sweeping through Syria.
Tourism seems to have suffered the most from the 6-month crisis in Syria, which is still underway. Can Syrian tourism outlive the crisis with minimal damage?
I think that tourism has suffered in Syria for two main reasons. The first is because of the travel restrictions imposed by governments around the world, along with the so-called “travel warnings” that called on foreign nationals to refrain from coming to Syria.
The second is due to the images that beam into their homes from satellite TV. These images are worrying, making potential tourists think twice before booking a flight to Syria. These two reasons are why people are calling off travel to Syria, both for tourism and investment. The only ones that are still taking place are those related to foreign companies that operate in Syria, mainly in banking, oil and gas.
To start out with, what is important is reducing, or lifting completely, travel restrictions to Syria. Recently, I met with the Minister of Tourism Lamia al-Assi. It was a constructive dialogue and I expressed my admiration for her specific interest in meeting everybody related to the tourism sector, in order to combat the current crisis Syrian tourism is undergoing.
There has been plenty of debate about corporate survival in light of the crisis. Many companies had to lay off workers, or pay them reduced salaries, in other to outlive the storm. This was very unpopular, with some even accuse it of being immoral—seeing it from a humanitarian perspective, rather than a business one. What do you think?
Crisis management groups around the world would usually advise employers to act wisely, as if they were dealing with their own home/family. If one goes through a crisis at home, he/she would never spend all their money if revenue is in decline. In cases like these, people have to manage their finances more closely, spending only on need rather than luxury or extravagance.
Dealing with the crisis should be proportionate to its damage and employers ought not to lay people off unless that is absolutely necessary. That comes only after granting unpaid leaves is no longer adequate to curbing financial loss.
At the Four Seasons, what is also very important to us is maintaining the quality of our services. Quality and excellence remain our prime objective, regardless of how difficult the crisis becomes.
Some people are calling for “offers” claiming that only when hotels and agencies start making attractive offers to serve as “magnets” for customers, will they overcome, or at least minimize damage, of the current crisis.
From experience, reducing prices or making lucrative offers, does not energize an economy, nor does it increase the number of clients at a hotel. All it does is reduce revenues and ultimately profitability, which makes it even more difficult for you to survive in times of crisis. At the Four Seasons, for example, we take the quality of services, and customer satisfaction, very seriously.
Whether a guest is visiting the hotel for a cup of coffee, or to hold a wedding at our ballroom, when he/she looks at the service rendered vs what was paid, they would realize that their money was put in the right place.
Instead of reducing prices, we at the Four Seasons have decided to make a cohesive package of services and offers, giving customers added value. Such services, we believe, will transform first time guests into permanent and frequent ones.
I think that Syria suffers from a distorted image painted by the outside world. Syria possesses an internal beauty, that includes the people, that one can only appreciate by visiting Syria. That is what I tell my friends who live abroad, when they ask me what makes me so attached to Syria. I usually tell them: “Come visit, and you will see the magic for yourselves.”
