Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza offers dedicated services for its growing number of Japanese guests

Spearheading the innovations is recently appointed Ryo Yamamoto from Fukuoka in Japan who has moved to Egypt from Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Chinzan-so.

Ryo's task is to coordinate the programme specifically for Japanese guests and ensure that their needs are taken care and indeed to ensure that the Japanese word for welcome - 'Irasshai' -is on the lips of everyone from the Hotel's Concierge to room service staff.

The move to ensure that Japanese guests are given a home-from-home experience has come from an in-depth study by the Hotel's Marketing Department. The study has included sales development trips to Japan. In turn, the Marketing team has spread the word around the Japanese community in Cairo and collected important data to ensure that the minutest detail of respect in customer relations has been adhered to.

Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza has been busy over the past few weeks in a special staff training and development programme to ensure that the extremely precise and indeed globally coveted adherence to etiquette is honoured. This includes the kitchens where staff have been trained in Japanese cuisine and speciality dishes have been introduced to the restaurant and in-room menus. In specially designated guest rooms, Japanese visitors will find Hotel directories in Japanese and yukatas - kimono style bathrobes - in the bathrooms.

"It's a pleasure to be an integral part of the new Japanese programme at Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza," said Yamamoto. "Our culture is very specific and it is with respect that I acknowledge the very intense efforts being put in place by Four Seasons Nile Plaza. Egypt has for many years been a popular country for Japanese tourists and Cairo in particular is a city which my fellow countrymen really want to discover.

"To know that they can stay here for a day, two and more and feel like they are 'at home' with everything from our traditional breakfast to in-room directories in Japanese and indeed Japanese channels available through in-room television channels, is an exceptional move by the Hotel."

Said Olivier Masson, General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza:

"We are aware that in other hotels around the Middle East, special services and amenities geared to Japanese guests have been an integral part of their regular business. Our hotel has been opened for little under a year and already we appreciate that our Japanese guests are looking for that 'something special' when they stay with us. It is important that we respond and indeed go that further mile and our newly introduced Japanese hospitality programme will not only be a move forward in the local market, but an important aspect of the innovations we are proud to be offering at our Hotel."