UAE hotels go for a ‘culture-connect’ with customers across globe

Ritika Sharma / Emirates Business

Located in one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, hotels in the UAE are adding that extra ethnic edge to their offers in order to connect well with their customers —international tourists as well as expatriates.
According to reports, UAE hotels host customers from over 108 countries across the world annually.
This indisputably creates a lot of room for Emirates’ hoteliers to come up with innovative business ideas and campaigns to attract people from varied cultures and to make most out of the increased footfall.
While talking to Emirates Business, Max Wiegerinck, the General Manager of Le Royal Meridien hotel, Abu Dhabi, said, “In order to strike a familiar chord with our customers, whether they are visiting UAE or have decided to make UAE their new home, we have started to celebrate various national days and festivals. This is a good way of letting the specific community find some time for networking and experience their culture combined with our warm hospitality.”
Le Royal Meridien recently held ‘Netherlands Day’ where they invited expatriates for a special get-together, which included interesting games, music and authentic cuisine of Netherlands. Also catering to the huge number of Indians as their customers, the hotel holds an Indian-theme evening every week.
“As our hotel is located in the heart of the Emirates’ capital, it is our duty to make our customers feel special. We want them to know that we respect their respective cultures and we will try our best to make them feel at home,” Max added.
Having in-house restaurants, specialising in specific cuisines, is another popular way of building long-lasting relationships with customers that hotels in UAE are making use of. A survey, recently conducted by a Dubai-based hospitality company, states that there are more than 86 kinds of different cuisine-based restaurants that are operational in the city.
“It is amazing that hotels in the UAE have a variety that is appreciable when it comes to cuisine-based restaurants. From Indian to Italian, there is hardly any kind of food you won’t find in any good hotel in the UAE. Just as we approach the Expo 2020, there will be around 25 percent rise in the number of such restaurants within the hotel premises,” said Umesh Khanoo, a food blogger and a researcher based in Abu Dhabi. As per reports, in-house restaurants contribution constitutes upto 10 to 25 percent of the hotel’s overall revenues.