Gary Waite, operations manager for Travel Management Team, West Yorkshire.
I was surprised at the friendliness of the people – there were no hassles. It is very clean and civilised. I thought the quality of the buildings would be a bit poorer and it’s got a lot more greenery than I expected. The restrictions on drinking alcohol is what I thought. The quality of the beaches and the sea is very good. The problem is it’s just very new so people don’t know it. It will become more popular, slowly but surely – bearing in mind that we are running out of new destinations. Hyatt would not have opened a hotel here if it hadn’t thought it didn’t have potential. It’s now up to us to come up with some ideas for conference and incentive groups – hot air ballooning and helicopter rides would be great for this destination. You need something more than what there is at the moment.
Andy Orrah, managing director of Conference and Motivation Management, West Yorkshire
The biggest problems is the restriction on drinking alcohol. As far as the British market is concerned, having last orders in the hotel at 12.30pm is ludicrous. This is something that possibly needs to be changed.
We have also got to find other things for our clients to do. Unfortunately groups like the Ford sales conference are not bothered about culture – they wouldn’t get up at 7am for a day looking a museums but they might get up at 7am to go out on a speedboat and see the dolphins.
The distances here are much further than Dubai and it definitely needs a golf course. That’s why Dubai wins most of the time. I think it will get one within a couple of years.
It needs to find someone to promote it in the UK. It will become known but I just hope that when it does it doesn’t get known by the wrong people, like the package tour operators. Let’s hope it doesn’t get ruined.
Katie Dolling, sales executive for Talking Point, Maidenhead
You would have to be careful which kinds of groups you would bring here. With women, you would have to warn them about having to cover up all the time. Some of the younger clients wouldn’t like this.
The scenery is more dramatic than I expected – I thought it might be a bit boring but it’s not. I wouldn’t put the museum in my itinerary though – it’s not what our clients would want. They would be more interesting in the camel racing and jeep safaris.
It’s a new destination which is a major help and this hotel [The Hyatt] will also help. However, I don’t think this is a large group destination. I wouldn’t put in a group of more than 50. Also, it’s a case of having to convince people to switch from Dubai. You can do everything here that you can do in Dubai. It would work as a two centre. It needs more marketing.