Hotelier Middle Easy
by Josh Corder
One of Morocco’s four imperial cities, Marrakech has had a long and storied history. Over the past 100 years alone it has seen the likes of Winston Churchill, Edith Piaf and Maurice Chevalier help establish it as a post-WW1 hotspot, before it grew into a tourist destination following WW2 and became a stop-off on the ‘hippie trail’ in the 1960s, welcoming The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and more. It is also a stronghold for more than 400 hotels and considered one of the country’s most vital tourism destinations.
Mandarin Oriental Marrakech is one such hotel, boasting 54 private villas in a slice of luxurious privacy just 15 minutes from the bustle of the centre. The hotel’s general manager, Marcel Thoma, joined the property in autumn 2020 and hasn’t looked back since.
He said: “Marrakech is the luxury hotel capital of the country I would say. It has a perfect climate and a strong offering of world-class restaurants. Morocco is such a special country, given its various ethnicities and climates. You can drive just two or three hours and go from a snow-capped mountain to a sunny beach or a big city area, or even the UNESCO Medina.”
The Swiss GM was educated at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, considered one of the world’s greatest hospitality schools. He sees his hotel as a chance to tell the world about Moroccan hospitality.
“A hotel like ours is truly world-class, but people don’t talk about it enough because people don’t really know how to understand Morocco,” he said.
“Yes, the French understand it, so do the people who grew up here, but to the rest of the world, the country has a lot of mystique and mystery.”
This mystique, added Thoma, actually works in Marrakech’s favour. He added: “My first visit to Marrakech was in 1995 and the Medina hasn’t changed much since then. That’s so wonderful in today’s world given the rise of shopping malls and the gradual development of every street corner. Marrakech protects its culture and its areas which truly represent the country.
“Morocco is often categorised with the Middle East or North Africa but, to me, Morocco is neither of these things. The number of luxury hotels in Marrakech alone is far beyond anything else in North Africa. The service here is much better than elsewhere and I believe the products are more authentic than most of the Middle East,” he stated.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, around 70 percent of the hotel’s business came from Europe, with the remaining numbers flying in from the US and Middle East. According to Thoma, if the city wants to tap into a variety of different source markets, it must follow in the footsteps of some of its regional neighbours.
He explained: “I think Marrakech could do more things like Dubai, Turkey and the Maldives. We’re nowhere near these places in terms of recognition. We depend on word of mouth and on travellers seeing with their eyes that things are going ahead as normal.”
The Kingdom of Morocco is currently in a ‘Health State of Emergency’ – first enacted in March 2020, when the country recorded its first COVID-19 death. For hoteliers, this means lacklustre results across the board. Not for Thoma, however, who reported full occupancy over the festive period.
“Our Christmas programme was very well-received. Between December 28 and January 2 we were fully booked and our ADR was in four-digits in US dollars, and at the same levels as in 2019,” he shared.
“Often people aren’t familiar with North Africa’s cuisine and culture. Many perhaps don’t know about the ease of travel here and the lack of a language barrier. I want people to know this country is very diverse with a lot to discover. There’s an array of different cultures, climates and sceneries.”
It seems there are many chapters left in this story and Thoma intends to write them.
For all the latest hospitality news from UAE, Gulf countries and around the world, follow us on Twitter and Linkedin, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube page.
