A guest blog from Kay Carstens, a frequent contributor to our print magazines:

Terrorism downturns faced by U.S. hotels, airlines, tradeshow organizers, and others depending on convention-goers and business travelers since September 11, 2001, don’t hamper business in the Middle East. In Kuwait, the UAE, Syria, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, and expositions) business is exploding. Tradeshow attendance and booth rental were up by 17 to 25 percent in 2002 and 2003. International visitor numbers are up 10 percent, helped by loosened entry restrictions. Kuwait, for example, in March, revised regulations so that visitors from North America, Western Europe, SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand can now obtain entry visas on arrival as opposed to applying for them weeks in advance. Does this sound like the opposite of what’s happening here?

During 2003, hoteliers in the Middle East turned the war in Iraq and Western economic malaise into an impressive profit performance, according to figures from a Deloitte survey. Steeper growth in the first quarter of 2004 portends greater profits this year. Fueled by an increase in intra-regional travel as many people chose to boycott destinations in North America and Europe, Middle East hotels pushed rates upwards, making it the only region to report 2003 growth in average room rates.

Hotels in Kuwait starred with a 75 percent jump in profitability, helped by 55 percent occupancy increase from the military and journalists covering the Iraq war. Outside of Kuwait, despite the 10 percent more international visitors, occupancy was static at 63 percent, but a 5.3 percent growth in room rates helped drive up profits across the region. Significant cost savings came in decreased annual energy costs per room, from US$2,212 to US$2,081. (The Middle East Annual Profitability Survey 2004 is available online at www.HotelBenchmark.com).

Hotel Chains, Operators, Investors Want in on the Action
Chain hotels are burning up the lines building as large a presence as possible in major Middle East markets. Recent announcements describe major expansion across the region. Fairmont is making swift progress on the incentive-quality Fairmont Cairo, Nile City; the Fairmont Palm Hotel & Resort in Dubai; and the Fairmont Abu Dhabi Resort & Villas, all scheduled to open in 2006. Accor, the global French hotel company, has five new hotels underway in Saudi Arabia; a 120-unit suites hotel is near completion in Bahrain; 1,500 new rooms are due to come online in Dubai, and negotiations are ongoing for new projects in Kuwait, Syria, and Qatar. Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts has taken over management of the 1,320-room Le Meridien Mecca Tower project, the largest hotel in the Gulf. It is also planning to open Le Meridien Riyadh in 2005. Hilton International, which operates 18 hotels in Egypt, eight in the UAE, three in Saudi Arabia and one each in Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait is building 10 more Middle East hotels.

Overall, the expansions will give Accor the biggest room count and probably the greatest Middle East presence of the international hotel chains. The company has capitalized on France’s neutral Middle East stance and its opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq and Palestine to seek favorable treatment for its expansion proposals. The Saudi royal family is aligning with the French hotel group, so Accor will manage new properties being developed on behalf of the House of Saud.

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I just joined up at the experientialforum.com, which is run by the International Experiential Marketing Association (IXMA). Since experiential marketing encompasses everything from sales meetings to trade shows, I thought this might be interesting–it’s definitely active, and I’ve already heard from several familiar names in the meetings biz. Will let you know if anything useful pops up.

Thanks to Rich Westerfield of the Westerfield Group for mentioning it on the MIMlist!

Or maybe you do, if your attendees have a sense of humor. A friend sent me a list of 50 state “mottoes,” some of which I thought were pretty funny (others a tad to very offensive). Here are some of the better ones:

Arizona: But It’s a Dry Heat
Illinois: Please Don’t Pronounce the “S”
Indiana: 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free
Iowa: We Do Amazing Things With Corn
Kansas: First of The Rectangle States
Maine: We’re Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster
Massachusetts: Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden’s
Minnesota: 10,000 Lakes… And 10,000,000,000,000 Mosquitoes
Nebraska: Ask About Our State Motto Contest
New York: You Have The Right To Remain Silent, You Have The Right To an Attorney…
North Carolina: Tobacco Is A Vegetable
North Dakota: We Really Are One Of The 50 States!
South Dakota: Closer Than North Dakota
Vermont: Yep

What would you say your state motto should be? I like “Land of the Fee, Home of the Knave,” but I’m not sure what state that one would belong to. Or maybe that could be the unofficial motto of that hotel that royally goofed up your last meeting and overcharged to boot?

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Yikes! According to an article from hotel-online, while meetings may be good business for hotels in the Middle East (see Kay’s guest blog, below), Halliburton Co. and other contractors are ringing up $11 million–yes, $11 million–at the five-star Kuwait Hilton annually.

“Auditors looking into hefty charges rung up by Halliburton Co. and others at a beachfront hotel in Kuwait chastised the Coalition Provisional Authority for failing to better control costs. The authority’s inspector general…said the Provisional Authority ‘did not apply adequate oversight to ensure that operating costs were minimized.’”

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PCMA wants to be the ‘go to’ organization for meetings industry education and trends”—-that’s the headline from a PCMA press release about the association’s Leadership and Governance Conference held June 15 to 17 at New York City’s Sheraton Hotel and Towers, where volunteer leaders “provided input into strategic priorities.”

Well, duh. I didn’t think they were aiming to be the “stay-away-from” organization. Sorry, I’m a little cranky today, and that association-speak makes me crazy. But once I got past all the strategic priorities, market share, and cutting edges, it sounds like they actually have a few really good ideas on the menu. Such as:

-If “giving new emphasis” means what I think it does, PCMA should be offering more education aimed at senior-level professionals, rather than aiming mainly to the mid-level and beginners.

-PCMA also will look into “increased affiliation with other groups of meeting professionals.” The same day, I got another press release that indicates this is already starting: “NSA is providing the 16 PCMA chapters in the United States and Canada with a resource list of speakers who are willing to provide gratis speeches tailored to the education needs of chapter members. PCMA chapters will access the speakers through the PCMA Web site. To date, more than 200 NSA speakers have volunteered to be listed.” Good job, guys! I’m curious to see what other partnerships you scare up.

-Education will “include a continuum of core competencies for lifelong learning and a tool that individuals can use to assess their skills throughout their careers.” A great idea whose time has definitely come.

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If so, you might want to check out some of these oddball lodging choices.

I think this one’s my favorite: “Jules Undersea Lodge, the world’s only underwater hotel, sits 24 feet below the surface of a lagoon in Key Largo, and the only way to get there is by diving. Once you enter the facility, though, you can dry off, change clothes and watch the world swim by. A stay at the hotel includes breakfast and dinner, cooked by a chef and brought to the guests in a watertight container.”

To receive a weekly blog update, e-mail Sue.

If so, you might want to check out some of these oddball lodging choices.

I think this one’s my favorite: “Jules Undersea Lodge, the world’s only underwater hotel, sits 24 feet below the surface of a lagoon in Key Largo, and the only way to get there is by diving. Once you enter the facility, though, you can dry off, change clothes and watch the world swim by. A stay at the hotel includes breakfast and dinner, cooked by a chef and brought to the guests in a watertight container.”

To receive a weekly blog update, e-mail Sue.

While they’ve been working together unofficially for years, now three of the industry’s favorite meetings tech gurus–Corbin Ball, CMP, Rodman Marymor, CMP, and Jeff Rasco, CMP, have teamed up to steer one big new tech consulting enterprise called www.tech3partners.com.

Corbin, who’s been our technology columnist for light years, will still keep his old job of President and Founder of Corbin Ball Associates, Bellingham, Wash. Jeff’s been teaching us all about technology for 20 years and now, in addition to the new company, he continues to lead at interactive registration service provider Attendee Management, Inc. in Wimberley, Texas. Rodman, who heads up, Cardinal Communications of Berkeley, Calif., stole my heart when he created the Meeting Industry Mall nine years ago, which later spawned the MIMlist listserv I mention so much here, now owned by another publishing company.

“If two heads are better than one, then T3P has cubed the equation,” said Rasco in a press release. “We hope to bring not only technology expertise, but combined experience spanning three quarters of a century on both sides of the industry.”

To receive a weekly blog update, e-mail Sue.

PCMA wants to be the ‘go to’ organization for meetings industry education and trends”—-that’s the headline from a PCMA press release about the association’s Leadership and Governance Conference held June 15 to 17 at New York City’s Sheraton Hotel and Towers, where volunteer leaders “provided input into strategic priorities.”

Well, duh. I didn’t think they were aiming to be the “stay-away-from” organization. Sorry, I’m a little cranky today, and that association-speak makes me crazy. But once I got past all the strategic priorities, market share, and cutting edges, it sounds like they actually have a few really good ideas on the menu. Such as:

-If “giving new emphasis” means what I think it does, PCMA should be offering more education aimed at senior-level professionals, rather than aiming mainly to the mid-level and beginners.

-PCMA also will look into “increased affiliation with other groups of meeting professionals.” The same day, I got another press release that indicates this is already starting: “NSA is providing the 16 PCMA chapters in the United States and Canada with a resource list of speakers who are willing to provide gratis speeches tailored to the education needs of chapter members. PCMA chapters will access the speakers through the PCMA Web site. To date, more than 200 NSA speakers have volunteered to be listed.” Good job, guys! I’m curious to see what other partnerships you scare up.

-Education will “include a continuum of core competencies for lifelong learning and a tool that individuals can use to assess their skills throughout their careers.” A great idea whose time has definitely come.

To receive a weekly blog update, e-mail Sue.

From Tamar Hosansky’s editor’s note in the June issue of Medical Meetings:

“Maybe it’s because all four of my grandparents were immigrants, or maybe it’s because I grew up in a neighborhood created for United Nations diplomats and their families, where I was surrounded by people from around the world — but anything that stifles the free flow of communication among different countries sets off my internal alarm. And that alarm has been sounding continuously as I read about the ever-growing list of security measures for inbound visitors rolled out by the government since 9/11.

“The roadblocks to obtaining visas are formidable, and getting more so. I am concerned that physicians from poorer countries, unable to afford the costly visa application process, will lose the invaluable opportunity of attending U.S. conferences.

“The good news, as we report in this story, is that the medical meeting planners interviewed say that their international attendance is actually increasing. However, one organizer adds a cautionary note. She helped plan a meeting that brought 600 Chinese healthcare professionals to Boston in June 2001. The logistics of organizing a similar event in today’s environment would be daunting, she says. I remember how excited I was when MM covered the conference — its purpose was to give Chinese and U.S. participants the chance to forge partnerships that would improve healthcare in both countries. How sad it would have been if that historic meeting had been canceled.

“The effect of the ‘culture of no,’ as it is called, extends beyond meetings to the wider healthcare community. The UCLA Medical Center had to replace one of its pediatric heart surgeons, a Pakistani, because of visa delays, according to a November 11 article in the Washington Post. The same article reports that at the Mayo Clinic, foreign physicians and scientists have been prevented from traveling abroad to professional conferences. An April 21 editorial in the Boston Globe warned that the United States may lose its preeminence as a center for science researchers. According to the National Science Foundation, 57 percent of post-doctorate research fellows in the United States are foreigners with temporary visas. But those numbers are declining, as researchers now choose to work elsewhere.

“Of course, security is a paramount concern, but I think it’s important to question the measures taken in the name of safety and to take action if the rulings threaten medical advancement and patient care. I hope you will join forces with the International Association for Exposition Management and the other travel organizations that are lobbying for a fast-track visa program. Don’t wait until you see a dip in international attendance, get complaints from foreign doctors trying to travel to your meetings, or run into problems collaborating with sister societies around the world. Pay attention now. Disease knows no boundaries — neither should medical education.”

I would add to her words only that, while of course of importance to medical professionals, the repercussions stretch far beyond healthcare–this affects all of us.

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