DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Veteran Caribbean hoteliers, BerthiaParle and Kashmie Ali, represented St. Lucia as delegates at The Hotel Show in Dubai this past month.
“The Hotel Show is one of the most important annual events in our calendar at Dubai Tourism and has played a significant part in driving the hospitality sector by bringing hoteliers together and facilitating partnerships”, said IssamAbdulrahimKazim, Chief executive officer of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
Over 19,000 hospitality professionals visited the event held at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Sectors represented included hotel operators, owners, managers, architects, engineers, designers, developers, and consultants.
Parle and Ali also attended the Vision Conference at The Hotel Show, which showcased over 80 international speakers who discussed and debated trends in hospitality.
Parlesaid :“It was an eye opening experience for me. The quality and design of the items that were exhibited not only at the showcase, but already in use across Dubai’s hotels and resorts, I have never seen used in the Caribbean. It was good to be there to experience the high-end nature of the items that were available and the services being delivered. The hotels there are truly state-of-the-art.”
Ali said: “One of the highlights was getting an insider’s view of the hospitality and tourism sector’s vision to grow in the next five to ten years, especially advances to accommodate the new tourism attractions in development such as the World Expo 2020 and the Legoland and Bollywood theme parks.”
During their time in Dubai Parle and Ali also visited many of the United Arab Emirates’ premiere luxury hotels including the world’s only seven star hotel, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai and the Emirates Palace Hotel which also houses the Emirati royal family.
Other site visits included the award winning Jumeirah Hotel, The Address, which is housed in the world’s largest mall, the Armani Hotel Dubai situated at the base of the world’s tallest building, One&Only Royal Mirage, and the Palm Jumeirah – a man-made archipelago on which 17 high-end hotels can be found and is one of Dubai’s three planned islands.
Parle and Ali hope to implement some of their new insights into the hospitality and tourism industry in their region.