Leading hotel industry professionals have met at the largest annual gathering of general managers and hospitality industry stakeholders to discuss various issues pertinent to hotel operations in Maldives.
Organised by local hospitality industry publication Hotelier Maldives, the second edition of GM Forum took place on Wednesday at Hulhule Island Hotel (HIH) with the participation of almost 50 general managers. It also brought together a total of over 100 industry leaders, policymakers, resort operators and owners, and other hospitality industry stakeholders including suppliers.
The forum featured Hussain ‘Champa’ Afeef, a tourism industry pioneer and Chairman of Crown and Champa Resorts, and Jesper Palmqvist, Area Director for the Asia Pacific Region at STR Global, as keynote speakers.
Palmqvist also gave a presentation delving deeply into data on the Maldives – both recent and long term – to understand the main key performance indicators, and supply and demand balance, and compare that to other relevant markets. He also looked into profit and loss data to foresee a profitability performance comparison, and analysed what lies ahead for the country’s hospitality industry with regard to its performance over the past two years.
At the summit, Mohamed Solah, Manager, Infrastructure Development at Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), and Mohamed Shahdy Anwar, Senior Counsel at Suood Anwar and Co. LLP, gave individual presentations.
This year’s forum also included panel discussions facilitated by general managers focusing on employment law, sustainability in resort management, importance of reinvesting in properties, new openings, and destination marketing. The panels were themed around transportation, statistics and forecasting, environment and sustainability.
The first edition of the GM Forum was held on May 25, 2016, and saw the attendance of over 100 delegates including over 20 general managers.