Jose Silva: My goal is to take Jumeirah to the international level
KUWAIT: Jose Silva, Chief Executive Officer, Jumeirah Group participated in the Jumeirah roadshow held recently in Kuwait, where he met local media representatives and answered their questions. Some excerpts:
About Jumeirah
Jumeirah is one of the most prominent luxury hotel brands with a strong heritage in the Middle East. Dubai is a business and service hub in this part of the world. We want to compete on the global scale. My goal is to take Jumeirah to the international level, to not only be the best in the Middle East, but also have a strong presence globally. We have a lot of Kuwaitis visiting Dubai hotels or local properties in our portfolio.
About Jumeirah Kuwait
The Kuwaiti market is very good and the hotel is doing extremely well despite the latest openings in the market. The hotel does well for many reasons including its unique location, as it combines both business and leisure and strategically offers resort facilities as well as business proximity. Some competitors came to this market and more are coming next year, which is a good sign that people are investing. They wouldn’t invest this much if they didn’t believe in it. And our current owner keeps looking for additional opportunities.
Who are your competitors?
Everyone in the market is a competitor for us. It’s a good thing and it indicates the strength of the market. Competition is a good thing when you have a good positioning, and we believe that competition will bring more business. But our hotel is quite unique due to its location and social activities. The more competition there is, the better it is in the long term. In the short term, every competitor affects the business as you have to share, but it’s just a normal cycle.
We rank the first among hotels in the Middle East, and globally we are among the top five in the hotel space. The Kuwaiti market is important to us here and also globally. Our signature is Middle Eastern as we were born in Dubai. We are opening four more properties this year in the region. Today, the largest customers of Jumeirah in Dubai are Russians, Chinese and Arabs, who represent 85 percent of ultra-luxury consumers. Jumeirah is a leader in the luxury space - we are a luxury brand not only in the hotels field. In Dubai we have six solid hotels with more than 3,000 rooms with occupation of over 70 percent all year long despite low seasons.
Why this region?
Twenty years ago, the Western world couldn’t imagine spending their holidays in summer in the Middle East, but today they do. This shows that our consumers are becoming global, not only from outside the Middle East, but from the Middle East as well. The most secure sunny destination is the Middle East - in Dubai it usually rains only about six days a year, which is pleasant for European and Western tourists. The airport in Dubai is one of the biggest hubs in the world, as it connects the world together.
This region is perfectly located - seven hours from Hong Kong and seven hours from London. It’s the middle of the world, which is great for business. Dubai is the hub for services including banking, consulting and others because of that difference of seven hours in all directions. Any corporation in the world has to have a hub in the Middle East and Dubai is easier for them to set foot in. The Middle East’s infrastructure of services is in Dubai.
Some of your future projects
We are growing the brand where there is a future. We continue to launch more hotels in the Middle East - from now and during next year, we will open 8 to 10 hotels, and half of them will be in the region. Recently we opened in Sadiyat in Abu Dhabi and in Bahrain eight months ago. We will soon open in Oman and by the end of next year, in Makkah. We are designing a one-of-a-kind resort in the desert in Dubai for foreigners to experience the desert in a different way.
Challenges facing hotels
in the Middle East
It’s expected that hotels in the Middle East are going to compete with the best of Paris, London or Hong Kong. So the Middle East will have to acquire that level of expertise and deliver those expectations. In the world of social media, everything is shared. The level of expectation is the biggest challenge, so it has to be on the global scale of quality, excellence and style. Jumeirah has its own identity in a similar way as global fashion brands have, and it’s dangerous to lose this identity.
What about your employees?
Employees are the assets of any organization. It’s important to spend time with the staff and to listen to them, so I concentrate on people’s development, which is not only in training them. Developing them is engaging with them for their careers and promotions. At our university, we support a program for students with full tuition, salary and housing to come to study. It’s a big commitment for us as it’s the base of any success, and we bring experts in the industry to achieve this.
Elements of success
I try to simplify things for both the employees, owners and guests. We provide extraordinary service at Jumeirah, which comes from people engagement and motivation. To be luxurious, we have to be excellent in services. Then come a great physical product, great design, comfortable rooms and the restaurant, which makes the hotel extraordinary. The food and beverage experience is an essential part of excellence. Food is now the latest trend in travel, and I want to bring this to the hotel. I also want to bring new expertise to the brand - a global presence. I want it to be an iconic brand and not just very good. Success is the confirmation from outside that we have become the leader in the industry.
The Kuwaiti market
The occupancy rate in Kuwait is in the higher 60s, which is very good - in Paris it’s in the mid60s. I think when occupancy reaches the 70s, then there is space for more hotels. I’m happy to hear that new hotels are coming to the Kuwaiti market, even if it affects us in the short term, it will help us in the long term.
How to improve the Kuwaiti market?
To attract more tourists to Kuwait, we need more products, experience and awareness. International brands already have followers, who will come. Also, we need to facilitate the process more by bringing new hotels to Kuwait. To make the international community aware that most international food brands are available in Kuwait is very important. I didn’t know that Kuwait is a food destination, and people should know this. Social media is also very important - Kuwait has great freedom of press in the region.
Purpose of the roadshow
Companies exist through their presence on social media and through their ambassadors. More people want to speak to the leader and here I’m to meet them, I like to reach them and be the ambassador of the brand. They need to succeed in the future, so they need a voice - like all the other brands - to be present. Companies and organizations need their CEOs to be present and talk about the brand so the community will consume their brand. Our motto at Jumeirah is ‘Stay Different’, and difference and innovation is taking us ahead to the future. The goal of the roadshow is to talk and communicate.
Jumeirah’s growth
Jumeirah currently has 21 hotels - six in Europe, two in Asia, and the rest in the Middle East. We hope that in five years we will reach 35 hotels. Only next year we will open five hotels, which is a 25 percent growth, and we grow with quality. We lead the market now in Kuwait and in Dubai, we lead with over 3,000 rooms. The Kuwait market also needs four-star hotels - we have three of these in the UAE and we will continue increasing these in the future, as we also like to expand to middle class customers.
Silva joined Jumeirah as Chief Executive Officer in March 2018. He brings a wealth of experience with more than 35 years’ experience in international luxury hospitality, including 27 years with Four Seasons. Silva is renowned for the repositioning of some of the best hotels in the world including the iconic Four Seasons George V Paris. As Regional Vice President, he successfully led the most prestigious portfolio of the Four Seasons Collection, elevating both product and guests’ experiences to the highest level. Silva was awarded ‘Hotelier of the Year’ by Virtuoso, the leading luxury travel agencies network, and during his tenure, the Four Seasons George V was awarded 5 Michelin stars, still the most Michelin starred place in Europe and Americas.
As CEO, Silva is responsible for growing the group’s luxury portfolio through international expansion, overseeing the next phase of dynamic growth whilst building on Jumeirah’s extraordinary success over the past two decades, driving the company to a new era in luxury. Born in Portugal and raised in Montreal till he was 35 years old, Silva thinks global with always a tactical and local approach.