The Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Middle East are stepping up efforts to engage travel agents and major corporations in Saudi Arabia starting this year by appointing Mohamed Halawani as associate director of sales in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia represents the largest GCC market for The Ritz-Carlton hotels in Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Sharm El Sheikh. “We see tremendously high potential in the Saudi Arabia market for the coming years and our goal is to increase our customer base by at least 15 percent in 2010,” said Pascal Duchauffour, area vice president, Middle East. “With such an aggressive objective to achieve, the general managers have agreed to engage an experienced sales person such as Mohamed Halawani to be exclusively dedicated to this country on behalf of their hotels' revenue targets.” Halawani is already planning starting this month a full calendar consisting of multiple sales calls and roadshows to provide a financial boost to the hotels' sales targets for the traditionally slower summer months. “My long term ambition is two-fold: I have to accomplish my revenue goals for the years ahead, and at the same time, I need to raise the awareness of The Ritz-Carlton brand among the top travel partners and companies in the Kingdom ahead of our competition,” Halawani said. Ritz-Carlton operates 73 hotels in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Mideast, Africa, and the Caribbean.
