Jean-Marc Busato

'Last year we acquired the master franchise for Regent International Hotels, Country Inns and Park Inn, and this extension of our branding gives us a lot more options,' explains Swiss-born Jean-Marc Busato who heads up the Middle East operation from its new headquarters in Dubai Media City.

'Including Radisson SAS this gives us four brands ranging from three-star to five-star plus properties. This is great for guest segmentation.'

At a time when some international groups are questioning their presence in the region at a time of heightened geopolitical tension, Radisson SAS is set to forge ahead. Most immediately, two hotels in Egypt are planned, three in Turkey, plus the well-known Diplomat Radisson SAS in Bahrain is being extended to include a residence tower and spa.

'We also need to get a property in Dubai,' says Mr. Busato, 'And we do have agreements signed for two hotels on Palm Island, perhaps one Radisson SAS and one Regent. For Abu Dhabi it is too early to say, and in Kuwait we are looking at a Regent and also Beirut. In Saudi we will be looking to extend our three-star brand.'

Taking over three hotels in Saudi Arabia has meant that the group has had to take Saudization very seriously, 'The Government gave us very clear instructions and we have followed them,' says Mr. Busato who is a graduate of Zurich's top hotel management school, Belvoir Park, and has a Masters degree in hotel management from the Swiss Hotel Association.

'It's a sensitive issue and you can not avoid it. We have focussed on offering professional careers to our Saudi staff and the preferred chain as a work place.'

In Oman Radisson SAS was recently voted the third best company to work for in the country, and this is an achievement the group would like to surpass in Saudi Arabia.

There is also the difficult problem of product differentiation in a crowded and competitive market. For Radisson SAS, which is a subsidiary of the SAS airline jointly owned by Sweden, Norway and Denmark, this is a matter of levering off a Scandinavian background and European approach to service and management systems, as well as environmental concerns.

'We are not too Americanized and like to be seen as something different,' says Mr. Busato. 'Our hosts have a 'Yes, I can! attitude,' and in taking over five hotels recently we have been not only been trying to re-brand the hotel but also employee attitudes, especially those in their jobs for sometime. There is also a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee where we give clients their money back if they can show that they are not happy with our service.'

For the next few months, with the possible war in Iraq pending, Radisson SAS has all the necessary contingency plans in place. But presently its hotels in Bahrain and Kuwait are full of media and military staff respectively. Mr. Busato expects some loss of business in Jordan and Egypt as the tourist trade will suffer, but in Beirut many Kuwaitis are choosing to stay in a hotel while the emergency persists.

'For the medium term we have no doubts about the future of this region which continues to grow,' he says. 'There is also a growth in domestic tourism with people not wanting to travel outside the region.'

Online reservations were up 40% last year but still only accounted for 8% of total bookings. 'This is the most cost efficient method of booking rooms for us and is $8-10 cheaper than any other method, and we see this as a growth area going forward,' notes Mr. Busato who is clearly one of the region's busiest hoteliers, on and off line.