Unique Challenges for Fairmont Hotels in Mecca
Chris · January 19, 2008
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has been quickly growing its international portfolio with multiple hotels opening in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Many hotel brands operate internationally, and this can bring some major operating challenges (and opportunities) depending on the unique laws and traditions of a particular country.
Hoteliers who take international postings are often quite surprised by what they find abroad, and success depends on balancing cultural sensitivities with corporate initiatives and operating procedures.
Fairmont Opens in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Fairmont has announced a new hotel opening in the Islamic holy city of Mecca. This is a pretty exotic location for any western hotel company, and Fairmont’s decision to operate in that city will have some major hurdles to overcome.
For example, one hundred percent of the hotel’s employees will be male. While both men and women travel from around the world to visit Mecca for the Hajj, Sharia Law dictates that only men may work. A company like Fairmont spends time ensuring equality in their workplace, but in Mecca this philosophy is plain irrelevant.
Fairmont’s challenges in Mecca aren’t necessarily because of a gender issue but, more importantly, because only Muslims are actually allowed to enter the city.
No doubt Fairmont will recruit talented managers and employees of Muslim faith, but consider that no non-Muslim employee at any level of the organization will ever set foot in the Fairmont Mecca hotel.
That’s an interesting situation since the vast majority of Fairmont leadership is currently non-Muslim. My understanding is that personal interactions between regional hotel managers or corporate office leadership and hotel management might be through a satellite office outside the city gates of Mecca.
Operating hotels in all the sweetest locations around the world is a jewel in the cap for every hotel brand. Yes there are challenges to overcome, but for many hoteliers it’s part of the fun.
Linkage
Thanks to flickr for the picture of Mecca [alfredogutierrezch]
