What I'd do: The AGCC Conference - and cancelling tourist reservations

Lots of interesting comments on the previous hotel cancelation story. Amjad had a good question: what did I think should be done? Rather than comment back, it started getting a bit long, so here it is as a post.

All in all Amjad - I'd guess I'd have done a hell of a lot more work and planning than seems evident...

1/ Generally the Government should look pretty seriously at who it puts in charge of such things and get someone who can plan and execute a programme of this magnitude more effectively. [That said, I suspect its only a small part of the organisational effort thats going a bit awry.]

2/ On the topic at hand - AGCC date change, hotel and flights cancelled, derogatory stories on Oman and HM in the international media, annoyed hoteliers and travel agents:

The issue is the late timing change - people book holidays many many months in advance. If you - as a travel agent - had made the block hotel bookings and made arrangements with airlines, I doubt you'd want to leave selling the packages you created until just 2 months to go! 60 days is almost nothing.

I would have already had a compensation plan ready to roll out [my estimate, ~1000 people, at 1000 pounds + some PR costs = 1 million rials. Thats peanuts compared to the overall budget for the conference].

I would first have had people pro-actively engage with the travel agents and the hotels, to find out exactly the best options (ie: not a top-down blanket order to take all 6 hotels for a fixed period), and to tell them that we understood the problems this would cause, that compensation and assistance would be provided, and to give some explanation(s) for why the late notice was totally unavoidable.

I would be a bit more careful how many rooms I take. I still find it hard to believe they need all 6 hotels. Sounds like someone just being extra-safe to have enough rooms (and regardless of the consequences), probably because the basic work on exactly how many rooms, where and when hasn't been done yet.

The whole thing would tie into a pre-existing and much broader communications & PR strategy and plan, already aimed at maximising the good press for Oman and HM that hosting such a major conference offers. Hosting AGCC should be a huge free PR BOOST to the Omani tourism industry, especially in the GCC markets, but also internationally. That takes an effort tho'. (Of course I would have a professional PR/Communications company with demonstrable experience in doing this stuff involved a long time ago.)

I certainly would be doing some urgent action [cash & PR] to correct the current situation of articles like this appearing about HM and the way Oman doesn't seem to care about ruining the holiday plans of hundreds of customers.

I'd be trying to turn the current cock-up into a great story about how some Omanis did fantastically, dealing with a crisis that was caused by forces outside their control, getting people sorted out, organising the event, etc.

In fact, I'd already have planned for a whole host of mini so-called 'human interest' stories on many of the key people involved in executing such a massive event, : the security guys, IT, logistics, chefs, entertainment, Oman Air, the airport, the protocol people, emergency medical staff, local tourist operators who will host some delegates, .... All with nice little stories and pictures so that not just the Times of Oman would print them, but they could go on the wire. The messages in the stories would be tied into a 'red thread' strategic message of Omani friendliness, competence, efficiency, hospitality, trust, & an example of the successful development since the 'blessed renaissance'.

And this is just the PR slant. Actually running an event like this is a HUGE undertaking.

Plan B
But I suspect the real actions going forward will be performed by who-ever thinks they have a good chance to take the hit for the mess-up:
- Try and ignore it. If no-one reads about it or talks about it, there is no problem. Certainly ensure there is nothing reoported in the local press. If ignoring it doesn't work, try and hush it all up.
- Ensure that lots of stories go out about how politically important the conference is for Oman, how everyone is looking forward to it, how fantastic everything is going.
- Stress how plenty of notice was given to the hotels, and that very few people are affected. Point out how many other hotels there are, and that keeping a few people from the west happy, people who selfishly wanted to celebrate Christmas by threatening the most imprtant conference on the ME agenda, people who don't understand how important this is to Omanis and the region, is immaterial. State that these whining expats with their fancy spoilt tourist tastes are the unfortunate few who are totally non-representative of the many who are very happy to go somewhere else, or to reschedule for a later time, and that anyhow its all the responsibility of the Hotel management, because as previously pointed out the Government gave them loads of warning.
- See how much I can lay at the feet of external forces beyond my control.
- Attack the Telegraph story and any other negative reports as being insulting, totally incorrect and simply infamatory. (for a good example of how to use attack as a form of defense when faced with a bad story, see the well organised Government response to the recently critical US State Dept report). Imply that we are seeking to take legal action to protect our reputation from such unfair attacks. Hopefully I can even figure out a way to tie ownership of the Telegraph to the Israelis. Worst case I could just get someone else to imply the Israelis are behind it.
- Stress contantly how the very best efforts have been made by everyone in the Government to host such a complicated and important conference. Efforts that simply could not have been better, because they were perfect.
- Have some stories on how great the Al Bustan Palace Hotel is looking, and how valiantly the impact of the devastating unsual weather was overcome.
- Ensure my immediate superiors are reported as having done an outstanding job.
- ...

You get the idea.
You can also see how useful Essa would be in implementing either plan...

Does that answer your question?

Diwan and Ministry of Tourism manage to get bad press for His Majesty in the UK

An interesting story in the UK press yesterday (as linked to by the always on the ball Muscati) is all about how the Sultan of Oman has spoilt Christmas. I for one would not like to be the person responsible for getting HM named in a headline like this:

Oman holiday plans wrecked by Sultan.
Thousands of travellers face losing their Christmas holidays in Oman after Sultan orders hotels to be emptied for a conference.

.
This is bad. It makes HM look like he himself decided to personally play the lead role in an Omani version of The Grinch who stole Christmas.


Ah yes: The combined forces of administrative excellence embodied by the civil servants at the Diwan (Royal Affairs) and the Ministry of Tourism have apparently managed to ruin the holiday plans of hundreds of tourists who had hoped to come here in the height of the peak season.

The poor tourists had understandably pre-booked hotels and flights some time ago. Only to have the Diwan tell the Ministry of Tourism (sic) to just go-ahead and confiscate all Oman's best hotel rooms for the period Dec 24 - Dec 30th. The poor English dears can't be blamed for not knowing that hotel bookings are not required in Oman for those with enough Wasta.

Here's one of the letters (source: Daily Telegraph) from the Ministry of Tourism...


So, I would think a potentially career limiting move by who-ever was responsible. I notice the letter was sent over the signature of one HE Mohammed Al Tobi, MOT Undersec. Well done the Minister for delegating that one. OK, they might need the hotels, but to imagine that you can, in a tourist market as limited as Oman, in peak season during Xmas/New year, just give 2 months notice via letter to summarily take all the rooms in the 6 best hotels, and without paying compensation, is naive to say the least. It doesn't matter that the Government own the hotels.

You can still see that news of the Diwan's block booking has yet to filter through to the travel agents, eg here at 'The Holiday Place'.co.uk.

Special Quiz for my Non-Native English speaker readers:
Test your knowledge of quaint traditional English idiom! Can you arrange the following 4 words/phrases to describe the diplomatic, Public Relations and commercial skills of the Omani Government's organisers of accomodation for the GCC conference?
1- organise
2- in a brewery
3- couldn't
4- a piss-up

(Answer at the bottom of the page)

Unfortunately, I suspect this is a story that will be picked up across the world. Someone in the Diwan and Foreign Affairs Ministries - and perhaps someone a little more senior than those perviously in charge? - should get on the case and act fast to provide compensation and turn the story into more of a "There is a Santa! - Generous Sultan rescues Christmas for hundreds of English families"...

here's the full article - I especially like the last line...
what a load of muppets.

Oman holiday plans wrecked by Sultan
Thousands of travellers face losing their Christmas holidays in Oman after Sultan orders hotels to be emptied for a conference.

By Charles Starmer-Smith
24 Oct 2008

The Christmas holiday plans of thousands of travellers wanting to visit Oman have been wrecked after their hotel bookings were cancelled to allow the Sultanate to stage a conference.

The Gulf Co-operation Council Summit (GCC), attended by the heads of state of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Oman, was originally scheduled for June last year, but was postponed because of the cyclone that struck Oman. It was rescheduled for November 18-26, but on Tuesday of this week was moved to December 26-30, the peak week for travel.

Every room in six of Oman’s leading hotels, including two Shangri- La properties, three Intercontinentals and the Grand Hyatt, is being given over to those attending the conference – a move that one British tour operator said is likely to result in legal action.

“It is outrageous. I am stunned by their arrogance,” said Nick Van Gruisen, managing director of The Ultimate Travel Company. “This will put the many operators who have booked rooms in good faith in breach of their contract with their holidaymakers. We have been given seven weeks’ notice and it will be impossible to find them alternative Christmas holidays at this late stage.”
Mohammed Al Tobi, the under-secretary for the Omani Ministry of Tourism, this week wrote to the general manager of the Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa, in which the two Shangri-La properties are housed, and ordered “that immediate measures be taken to ensure that both the Al Bandr and Al Husn hotels will be at the complete disposal of the Diwan of the Royal Court [central body of bureaucratic affairs] from December 24-30”.

Mr Van Gruisen said that customers of his company who were due to travel to Oman had already paid and had been left with their Christmas plans in tatters. Many might feel inclined to boycott the country as a holiday destination in future.

Lesley Rollo, managing director of Thomson Worldwide, said that it would give a full refund to all clients whose holidays have been affected by the conference.

Holidaymakers who have booked rooms in the six hotels independently will not be entitled to refunds on their flights and have little hope of finding other accommodation.

Hoteliers in Oman said they have been given no choice but to try to send customers elsewhere or make refunds.

Tony Zamora, director of operations at Intercontinental Hotels Group in Oman, said it only received confirmation on Tuesday that the summit was to take place, and all three of its hotels in Muscat – the Al Bustan Palace Intercontinental Muscat, the Intercontinental Muscat and the Crowne Plaza Muscat – were needed.

“We already have a number of reservations for this period and are truly sorry for the inconvenience this is likely to cause. We will work with our travel partners to make alternative arrangements, including offering accommodation at our sister hotels in the region and alternative dates at the hotels affected,” said Mr Zamora.

A spokeswoman confirmed that the hotels have nearly 550 people booked in during that period.

A spokesman for the Shangri-La hotel group said it had no choice but to follow the directive, but added that all deposits for rooms in the Al Bandar and Al Husn will be refunded. “This is a situation that is entirely out of our control as these are directives from the highest levels of authority within the Sultanate of Oman and we are compelled to comply,” he said. “We sincerely regret the disruption and distress this will cause.”

Sean Tipton, a spokesman for Abta, said the situation could be damaging for the hotels and the destination as a whole.

The Oman Tourist Board was unavailable for comment as we went to press.

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