http://allafrica.com/stories/200509121119.html
Serena Hotels To Bring Flare To Tourism Sector
The Monitor (Kampala)
INTERVIEW
September 12, 2005
Posted to the web September 12, 2005
By Joseph Olanyo
Serena Hotels is increasingly becoming a household name in the regional hotel sector. Serena is the new owner of the former Nile Hotel and Conference Centre, now called Kampala Serena Hotel. Business & Finance's Joseph Olanyo, talked to the Serena Hotels Managing Director, Mr Mahmud Jan Mohamed in Nairobi. Here are the excerpts:
You have invested in Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Mozambique and now Uganda. Why have you decided to spread your wings throughout the East and Central African region?
When Serena Hotels was first established in the late 1960's, the objective of the principal shareholder, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), was to establish an East African tourism circuit. Unfortunately due to challenges in both Tanzania and Uganda, in regard to foreign investments, the implementation of the Uganda and Tanzanian sector had to be shelved.
When the investment climate in Tanzania and Zanzibar improved in the early 1990's,we developed three Serena lodges, a luxury tented camp on the Tanzanian northern circuit and restored a historic building in the Stone town of Zanzibar, which is now the Zanzibar Serena Inn.
In Tanzania, we have taken over the management of Mountain Village and a camp in Serengeti, in the recent past. In 2002, we acquired the famous Polana Hotel in Maputo and our Kenyan circuit has also expanded with the addition of Kilaguni and Mountain Lodges and Sweetwaters camp.
We believe that the Serena brand is now well established and we will continue to identify strategic expansion opportunities in Africa to strengthen our circuit.
What attracted you to invest in Uganda?
As I mentioned earlier, Uganda has been on our radar screen for sometime now. In fact, we bid for the Nile Hotel in 1993 but unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. The recent tender process under the Privatisation Unit, in my opinion, was well structured and discouraged irresponsible investors who make promises and do not deliver. We were therefore delighted that our bid was successful, and a visit to the construction site will confirm that we are exceeding the bid document criteria, in the establishment of the Kampala Serena Hotel.
Do you have plans for expansion in Uganda?
We are in discussions with the ministry of Tourism and the Uganda Wildlife Authority to identify opportunities to establish a safari circuit in Uganda and both authorities have been most supportive.
With the establishment of the East African community, the region has to be marketed as one destination and if issues related to visa regulations, an open skies policy and opening of borders are implemented, East Africa will be a destination second to none.
A thriving tourism industry in East Africa will contribute to employment, poverty reduction and major fallout benefits for agriculture, transport and the manufacturing industries.
After the Kampala Serena Hotel, where are you going next?
Watch The Space!! We will continue to seek strategic expansion opportunities in the region and we are currently pursuing opportunities in Southern Tanzania, Mozambique and Rwanda. Our policy is not to expand for the sake of expansion, but to ensure that any new developments bring benefits to the existing company.
AKFED will support projects that meet development or pioneering criteria that may have a long-term payback. Such investments would be managed by Serena Hotels and would be supported by AKFED in the initial years until maturity, when they would be absorbed in the company structure. Development projects also have to demonstrate that they bring benefits to the local population and the economy of developing countries.
Will the Kampala Serena Hotel be flooded with expatriate staff?
In East Africa, we currently employ one expatriate and all other staff are East Africans. In Uganda, in the initial period, we will need expatriate input, however close to 90 percent of our staff will be Ugandans.
We already have fifty Ugandans training in our Kenyan and Tanzanian properties and they are performing extremely well. We believe that East Africans can offer the highest standards of service provided they are given the exposure, training and the tools to do the job and our experience to date of Ugandans has been very positive.
I can assure you that our policy for Uganda will be no different from the other areas we are present in, and it is in our interest to ensure that we employ a maximum number of Ugandans and substantial financial resources have been allocated to staff development and training.
Serena Hotels To Bring Flare To Tourism Sector
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Guest
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Guest
Uganda: Serena Hotel Ready
Uganda: Serena Hotel Ready
http://allafrica.com/stories/200607130426.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/200607130426.html
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Guest
Re: JOb
You should contact Management at Kampala Serena directly. All the best.Anonymous wrote:Well i am an Asain now working in Uganda in a three star hotel.I have done Masters in Catering and Hotel Management.
I would like to work in your hotel.
Is there any vacancy.
Please let me know.
Thank you.
Zayadul Islam
Kampala
Uganda
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Guest
Renovated Kampala Serena records brisk business
Renovated Kampala Serena records brisk business
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/ ... 080614.htm
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/ ... 080614.htm
Serena in pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asian countries
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/28/147560255 ... led-states
February 28, 2012
Michael Z. Wise has covered Central Europe for Reuters and the Washington Post.
Amid gunfire between the Pakistani military and Taliban fighters in the Swat Valley a few years ago, BBC reporter Nadene Ghouri found herself the lone guest at the luxurious Serena Hotel just outside the city of Mingora — and right in the center of the action. Despite the nearby battle, uniformed staff attended to her every need. When Ghouri inquired how they could afford to keep up the impeccable service, a saffron-suited waiter replied: "We are a five-star hotel, madam. We must maintain standards at all times."
The intense fighting eventually proved too much, and the Swat Valley hotel, part of the Serena chain operated by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, was mothballed for more than a year. It reopened in April 2010, after the Pakistani military had pushed back the militants. Now the chain is looking to expand operations in — of all places — war-torn Afghanistan, where its five-star hotel in Kabul has been struck by Taliban rocket fire, beset by rioters, and damaged in a deadly bombing. Rooms at the Kabul Serena start at $356 per night, sealed off from the disheveled crowds, street noise, and fetid sewage outside. Call it blind optimism, but Serena now wants to create what it calls a "tourism circuit" in Afghanistan, with possible hotels in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif.
It's a niche: the Ritz-Carlton of failed states. Serena owns 35 hotels, resorts, and lodges across nine countries, most of them outposts of multi-star luxury in places where residents live in zero-star conditions. High-risk hostelry has proved to be a booming business, as the chain — named Serena in a deliberate echo of the title "His Serene Highness" used by the Aga Khan's father — has doubled in size over the past decade, inaugurating a new property every two years, the most recent last November on the site of a Soviet-era shoe factory in Tajikistan. The Serena properties in East Africa reported a 33 percent rise in profits for 2010, and the entire hotel group is estimated to be worth more than half a billion dollars.
Serena doesn't confine its operations to dangerous locales, but the chain is very much driven to the world's political frontiers by its unusual benefactor. The 75-year-old Aga Khan — with personal wealth estimated at $2.7 billion — is the spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims, followers of a Shiite branch of Islam who regard him as a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. He started the Serena chain in the 1970s in Africa and then began opening hotels closer to large Ismaili communities in Central Asia.
Today's Serena touts its unusual business strategy — in effect, combining development work with the quest for profits. "We are not in business to lose money," says Serena's managing director, Mahmud Jan Mohamed, "but our objectives are different from other hotel companies. We're happy to take on difficult projects." The Aga Khan himself has described Serena's involvement in troubled states and post-conflict areas as bringing an "investment seal of approval" to attract even more foreign capital. "In all of these places," he said at the 2006 opening of the Serena in Kampala, Uganda, "our goal is not merely to build an attractive building or to fill its rooms with visitors, but also to make a strategic investment which many private investors might be reluctant to make."
Continued At Foreign Policy (With Slideshow)
February 28, 2012
Michael Z. Wise has covered Central Europe for Reuters and the Washington Post.
Amid gunfire between the Pakistani military and Taliban fighters in the Swat Valley a few years ago, BBC reporter Nadene Ghouri found herself the lone guest at the luxurious Serena Hotel just outside the city of Mingora — and right in the center of the action. Despite the nearby battle, uniformed staff attended to her every need. When Ghouri inquired how they could afford to keep up the impeccable service, a saffron-suited waiter replied: "We are a five-star hotel, madam. We must maintain standards at all times."
The intense fighting eventually proved too much, and the Swat Valley hotel, part of the Serena chain operated by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, was mothballed for more than a year. It reopened in April 2010, after the Pakistani military had pushed back the militants. Now the chain is looking to expand operations in — of all places — war-torn Afghanistan, where its five-star hotel in Kabul has been struck by Taliban rocket fire, beset by rioters, and damaged in a deadly bombing. Rooms at the Kabul Serena start at $356 per night, sealed off from the disheveled crowds, street noise, and fetid sewage outside. Call it blind optimism, but Serena now wants to create what it calls a "tourism circuit" in Afghanistan, with possible hotels in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif.
It's a niche: the Ritz-Carlton of failed states. Serena owns 35 hotels, resorts, and lodges across nine countries, most of them outposts of multi-star luxury in places where residents live in zero-star conditions. High-risk hostelry has proved to be a booming business, as the chain — named Serena in a deliberate echo of the title "His Serene Highness" used by the Aga Khan's father — has doubled in size over the past decade, inaugurating a new property every two years, the most recent last November on the site of a Soviet-era shoe factory in Tajikistan. The Serena properties in East Africa reported a 33 percent rise in profits for 2010, and the entire hotel group is estimated to be worth more than half a billion dollars.
Serena doesn't confine its operations to dangerous locales, but the chain is very much driven to the world's political frontiers by its unusual benefactor. The 75-year-old Aga Khan — with personal wealth estimated at $2.7 billion — is the spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims, followers of a Shiite branch of Islam who regard him as a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. He started the Serena chain in the 1970s in Africa and then began opening hotels closer to large Ismaili communities in Central Asia.
Today's Serena touts its unusual business strategy — in effect, combining development work with the quest for profits. "We are not in business to lose money," says Serena's managing director, Mahmud Jan Mohamed, "but our objectives are different from other hotel companies. We're happy to take on difficult projects." The Aga Khan himself has described Serena's involvement in troubled states and post-conflict areas as bringing an "investment seal of approval" to attract even more foreign capital. "In all of these places," he said at the 2006 opening of the Serena in Kampala, Uganda, "our goal is not merely to build an attractive building or to fill its rooms with visitors, but also to make a strategic investment which many private investors might be reluctant to make."
Continued At Foreign Policy (With Slideshow)