SPOTLIGHT 5

Reginald T. Pereira is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH). As the official national network for the hotel industry, MAH working as one body to promote, protect, represent more than 600 hotels as well as to advance the interest of its members in Malaysia.

Reginald obtained a Diploma in Hotel Management from The Les Roches School of Hospitality Management in Switzerland and has an MBA (Human Resources). Reginald is a Certified Instructor of the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute. Reginald is the first Malaysian to receive the Institute’s Lamp of Knowledge Award for Outstanding Hospitality Education- International in June 2007.

Property Quotient (PQ) interviewed him recently to gain insights on what Malaysia should do to further increase number of business travelers as well as an industry outlook for the next six to 12 months.

PQ: Can you briefly tell us what your mission is? And what is your expectation from the Malaysian hotel owners and operators? Reginald T. Pereira (RP): Since inception in 1974, our mission is to aim at building a highly skilled workforce, innovative and disciplined individuals who will enhance the efficiency and productivity in the Malaysian hotel industry.

We expect that all the hoteliers, hotel owners, operators and hotel-related industries can play a part in contributing suggestions and giving feedbacks in the MAH’s annual survey towards improving Malaysian hotel industry. This will lift MAH’s credibility as an agency that acts as the voice of the hotel industry in Malaysia.

PQ: The completion of the Grand Hyatt (2012), St. Regis (2014) and many more are coming into the market until 2015. This may set new benchmarks for the Malaysian hotel industry. Are we anticipating more flight schedules and new routes?RP: Connectivity to Malaysia is still a problem. We should encourage more low cost carriers in the ASEAN countries to fly to Malaysia as well as to increase their frequency of flights especially to major cities and tourism-concentrated areas. Without these efforts, Malaysian hotel industry will not expand substantially regardless Malaysia has great hotels. Further discussion is needed among various stakeholders i.e. the government, local authorities, industry players etc. in order to create flawless policies and guidelines. Perhaps some attractive incentives for the industry.

I believe our average room rates will experience a significant increase at least on par with Thailand. The take up rate by the domestic travellers will not be affected and Malaysian can still afford to pay as Malaysia is heading towards high income economy.

PQ: In Europe, a budget hotel is shown more to be resilience to the economic downturn and it penetrates the market quicker than a branded hotel. Is there any room for international branded budget hotels exploring this opportunity in Malaysia? RP:Some of the branded budget hotels are already here - Ibis, Holiday Inn Express and Swiss Inn. This budget hotel industry in Malaysia has evolved for the past 10 years. We foresee more branded budget hotels will come into the market. For instance in Iskandar Malaysia, the completion of LegoLand as well as another upcoming entertainment centres such as the Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and The Big Little Club that targeted mainly families will give industry players more opportunities to venture into this business.

PQ: In your opinion, what are the unique selling proposition that attracting foreign hotel brands and operators to Malaysia besides the incentives and benefits? RP: The incentives given by the government are not the primary factor. Frankly speaking, the country’s stability is the key factor in order to create more demand from the industry players. Since our independence in 1957, we encounter very minimal political instability and this makes Malaysia is one of the world’s preferred leisure destinations. However

on the business traveler side, Malaysian hotel industry needs a serious makeover, especially the infrastructure part. Greater global connectivity and accessibility to Malaysia coupled with the new policy on visa issuances allow us to create more demand from business segment. Special arrangements for visa issuance will definitely encourage more multinational companies do their internal seminar/conferences for their staff here. This could be one of Malaysia’s unique selling propositions.

PQ: As a closing statement, what is the outlook for Malaysian hotel industry in the next six to 12 months in terms of rating and classification as well as the occupancy rate and room rate? RP: Firstly, all hotels should be rated. In the next six to 12 months, we will see an increase in the occupancy rate and room rate will be increase caused by continues promotion activities by Ministry of Tourism and MyCEB. High demand for low cost carriers resulting increasing frequency of flights and upgrading works of airport’s infrastructure also contributed to the success factor. In addition, Malaysian hotels industry is remains stable and to some extent we bypass the Euro-zone crisis.

As a closing statement, we wish all the respective agencies both public and private sectors must put extra efforts in attracting long haul and high-end tourists in order to create spinoff effects. These effects will promote our occupancy and room rates to a new high and this will benefit many industry players in Malaysia.

For more information about Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), please visit http://www.hotels.org.my/

by Hazrul Izwan

THE MALAYSIAN

HOTELSINDUSTRYAn improved global connect-ivity and accessibility allows to create more demand in place

Reginald T. Pereira CEO, Malaysian Assocciation of Hotels