“What is also very important is
that, as an Okura hotel, we bring new business to Macau. That is especially what we are looking for; not to take just a piece of the existing action, but to actually grow the market.”
Summer revival One would expect that some of the new patrons would be from Japan, where brand awareness of Okura is very high. According to data from the Statistics and Census Service, Japa- nese accounted for around 3 percent of hotel guests in Macau last year. However, after the earthquake
and tsunami in Japan in March, out- bound tourism “has de nitely been a little bit slower” than rst expected, Mr Dubbelaar concedes. But he is hopeful. “We think this
summer the market from Japan will completely be back,” he says. “Being an Okura hotel and Japanese visitors being familiar with our brand, our quality service and our accommoda- tions, we would certainly go above that [3 percent]. I would be happy with 10 percent at rst.” On the food and beverage front,
there are some improvements to be made at Hotel Okura Macau, Mr Dubbelaar admits. “The Japanese restaurant, Yama-
eral manager and is now in charge of the Macau hotel. These are the only two Okura hotels in greater China. Mr Dubbelaar says there were no similarities whatsoever between the opening of the two
Not the usual manager H
hotels. “The time was different. Twenty-two years ago in China it was a different thing and Shanghai was in its infancy of development. It also required a different approach to selecting, hiring, training employees, building,” he recalls. “Twenty-two years onwards, coming to Macau is a distinct thing. There is experience here.
There is already an established local hospitality scene.” Born in the Netherlands, Mr Dubbelaar has a degree in hospitality management. He started
his hotel career with Okura Hotels and Resorts in 1979, at the Hotel Okura Amsterdam, and has never left the group. He was appointed the project leader and general manager of Hotel Okura Macau in April 2008. It “is highly unusual” that someone stays so long with a company in the hotel sector, Mr Dub-
belaar admits. He is also one of the very few top managers in Okura Hotels and Resorts that are not Japanese. Now, a secret: Mr Dubbelaar is far from being uent in Japanese. He understands and
speaks only “a little bit”, he says. “It is a language that is not just consisting of words. It is much more than that. One needs to
be able to read between the lines more than the lines themselves.” His advice is to get a good interpreter.
JULY 2011
zato, our signature restaurant, has performed beyond expectation in the rst month and that is encouraging, especially in times when Japanese restaurants have been suffering in this part of China,” he says. However,
armen Dubbelaar can, in a way, be considered the Okura Hotels and Resorts man in China. He was involved in the preparations for the opening of its Shanghai hotel as assistant gen-
rant, a fusion-style outlet serving meals in traditional Japanese bento boxes “could do a lot better”. Mr Dubbelaar explains: “It is a sizeable restaurant, [but] people don’t know it yet. We still need to do a lot of work on promotion and marketing.” The same can be said about the Sakazuki Sake Bar, which has also had a “slow start”.
Apart from problems on the de-
mand side, the hotel’s food and bev- erage services have had supply issues, caused by the nuclear calamity in Ja- pan that followed the earthquake and tsunami, which made it harder to im- port Japanese ingredients. The solu- tion was to look for different suppliers in other parts of Japan or even in other countries, Mr Dubbelaar says.
the Terrace Restau-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132