Cairo – A contract for the construction of the first Hotel Management College in Egypt was signed in Cairo, this week. The initiative aims at improving the training of professionals in the tourism sector in the country. It should be established by the Tourism Holding Society, together with four companies, in cooperation with the Swiss Ecole Hoteliere of Lausanne.
The future campus of the university should be installed in the outskirts of Cairo, in the region of Six October City, in an area of 22,000 square metres. The idea of establishing the institution was by the owner of the Semíramis Hotel Society, Abdel-Aziz Al Soliman.
“A true revolution has been taking place in this area in recent years, especially with regard to the use of technology and Internet. It was for this reason that sheikh Abdel-Aziz always dreamed of establishing a college following the standards of universities in the same standard as schools like Grion, in Switzerland, or Cornell, in the United States. Thus, he chose the Lausanne Hotel School to promote the viability studies necessary for the establishment of such an organisation,” said Kamal Eid, director general of the Semíramis Hotel School.
After the conclusion of the viability studies, which lasted almost a year and a half, the results were presented to the Ministry of Investment of Egypt. According to Kamal Eid, the ministry accepted to participate in the financing of the project, being represented by the Tourism holding of the country, which should have 50% of the shares of the university.
Two other public companies connected to the Ministry of Tourism, Misr for Hotels and Egoth for Tourism and Hotel Management, should also participate in the enterprise, together with two private companies, Semíramis Hotel Management and Balbaa Group, of hotel management.
“The capital necessary to make this project come true should total 200 million Egyptian pounds (US$ 36.563 million), as we hope this university may be among the best in the world, that it may be installed in the best buildings and that it may be equipped with the most sophisticated equipment,” said Fathi Nur, chairman at Misr for Hotels, adding that “this will all contribute to generating hotel management professionals of the best quality.”
The Egyptian minister of Tourism, Zoheir Garana, said, in an interview on Egyptian television, that the establishment of the institution represents a step in the right direction. “Of course it took a while to happen, but the initiative is now about to be realized,” said Garana. “It is much better and cheaper to bring foreign experience to our students than sending them to acquire it abroad,” he added. According to him, several colleges like this one are currently necessary to supply the growing tourism market demand in Egypt. The country has 215,000 rooms and another 198,000 are being built.
The contract signed with the Lausanne Ecole Hoteliere should be put in place within two years, when the construction of the installations is complete. However, next February, the Swiss school should start promoting internships and training for 1,150 employees of the hotel sector for improvement of their competences.
These internships should, temporarily, take place at the Egoth Institute of Tourism, in Alexandria, and should be turned to professionals of human resources, accounting, sales and marketing. The first of each group should be gratified with a scholarship at Ecole Lausanne.
In the areas of management of the hotel sector, 64 professionals should be chosen for internships in Switzerland. “We visited the Lausanne Ecole Hoteliere three times to be able to prepare the project. Our objective is to follow the example of the ‘mother school’, but with an Egyptian spirit that adapts to our means,” said engineer Ahmad Balbaa, president of Balbaa Group, who is responsible for the architecture of the establishment.
The businessman said that the façade of the college should be inspired on Hatshepsut temple, in Luxor, and that the rooms should be illuminated and acclimatized by material which does not affect the environment. “All rooms should be served by an IT (information technology) network. Apart from that, a five-star hotel will be built beside the college for students to be trained and to receive practical courses,” he added.
The Egyptian Hotel Management University should be ready to receive its first group of 350 to 400 students in 2012.
*Translated by Mark Ament
