Helmut Alber downs a bottle of Perrier water and, adjusting his suede blazer, settles down to watch a game of football in the executive lounge of the newly-opened Holiday Inn Downtown Kuwait.
It has been a long day for Alber, managing director of Weidleplan Consulting, Stuttgart-based architects of the Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium in Kuwait City, which is currently under construction. When it's complete in 2007 it will seat 60,000 people and host matches of World Cup proportions.
Alber has been flying into Kuwait every month for the last two years for various construction projects, and likes staying at the gleaming new, 24-storey Holiday Inn. "The business lounge here is the nicest in Kuwait – it has a decent working environment and they don't play the TV too loud," he says. "The standard high-rise in Kuwait is not too aesthetic, but it's good to see the cityscape changing now."
It's a new era – or, as Alber says, a whole new ball game – in Kuwait. Since 2003, after Baghdad fell and Saddam Hussein was captured, there has been renewed optimism in the air of a country that was once choked with oil-field fumes. A new business regime is in place that is unrelenting and progressive. With 10 per cent of the world's crude oil reserves, Kuwait's economy is on a high, fuelled by rising oil prices and steady production.
The petroleum sector accounts for almost half of Kuwait's GDP, which is high, even by GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) standards. As the main port of entry to Iraq, Kuwait continues to be a hub for the reconstruction of its war-ravaged neighbour and is hailed as a strong potential market by investors wanting to benefit from the newfound domestic confidence. Aided by the new Emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and a powerful parliament, Kuwait is bent on putting the crippling effects of the last decade behind it.
Kuwaitis don't like to be reminded of the country's brutal past, though most hotel lobbies still display bombed-out vestiges of the Iraqi invasion (bits of rubble, sooty fax machines and photographs of the carnage) in glass showcases. "Let us not talk about what Kuwait was," says Mohamed Najia, the government's tourism affairs advisor and secretary general of the Kuwait Hotel Owners Association. "Let's look at the positives."
To start with, infrastructure is on the rise, with about 20 new hotels in the pipeline. The remnants of war are long gone, replaced by glitzy malls and towering slabs of steel. Multinationals, foreign banks, retail stores (The Avenue, The Mall of Kuwait) and hotel chains are emerging to cash in on the economic resurgence. Portraying itself as a business-friendly state with much to offer, the city is buzzing with Islamic and oil conferences, and expos on rebuilding Iraq.
Then there's its new 20-year tourism master plan, drawn up in 2005 with the World Tourism Organisation and United Nations Development Programme. Other positive moves are more flexible visa procedures (expatriates with a residence permit in GCC states receive a visa on arrival) and an open skies policy, making way for new airlines and more visitors.
Last year, Kuwait International Airport handled an unprecedented 5.4 million passengers. It also saw the launch of low-cost carrier Jazeera Airways that now also serves Dubai, Beirut, Bahrain, Amman, India and Egypt. On July 1, Etihad Airways launched daily flights from Abu Dhabi to Kuwait. Then, in October, United Airlines launched three flights a week from Washington to Kuwait – its first destination in the Middle East – making it the only US airline to offer non-stop services between Kuwait and the US.
There are further ambitious plans for the airport. Najia says: "A new terminal to handle 14 million passengers is being planned while a terminal for private jets is under way."
Relaxing the entry restrictions is key to bringing more visitors. Mounir Amer, hotel manager at Sheraton Kuwait, the oldest five-star hotel in the city, says: "The new visa regulations will facilitate more conferences and bring more GCC tourists."
What the country doesn't have is leisure tourism. "Today, most visitors to Kuwait are corporate travellers," says Dalia El-Nazer, regional corporate sales manager of Alshamel Travel & Tourism. That's because Kuwait is certainly not perceived as an idyllic leisure getaway – yet – although it has plenty of outbound tourists; for example, it's the GCC's second-largest tourism market for Egypt after Saudi Arabia.
The government is now pushing tourism with new projects such as Failaka Islands, a US$2 billion offshore recreation destination. Another is the mixed-use Fahaheel Waterfront Project in the sea-facing city of Fahaheel. The 200-room Al Manshar Rotana Hotel & Suites, coming up as part of the project, is due to open in January 2007, linked to a commercial centre with over 32,000sqm of retail space.
Says Daniel Hajjar, vice president, sales and marketing for Rotana Hotels: "There is now agreement among businessmen, investors and policy makers that Kuwait is ideally positioned for expansion. As the government begins to direct the growth of the city towards the south, in the direction of Fahaheel, the city will gain added exposure."
Saif Eddin Mohammed, director of sales and marketing of Marriott International, which operates the JW Marriott and Courtyard by Marriott as well as the Arraya Ballroom in Kuwait City, says it will help that Kuwait, hitherto a business destination, is looking at new segments of travellers, for instance, families. "Kuwait is heading for a long period of political stability," agrees Hani Kafafi, Intercontinental Hotel Group's (IHG) director of operations for Northern Gulf and general manager of Crowne Plaza Kuwait. "We cannot afford to look back because the countries around us are racing ahead."
Crowne Plaza Kuwait, the hotel closest to the airport, is constructing a 200-room extension that will serve as a business hotel with a 2,000sqm conference facility. The hotel is also opening a US$10 million spa next year, and is taking no chances with security – it has 124 cameras installed across the hotel and two security-check points.
The best aspect of the 25-year-old Crowne Plaza Kuwait is not its red, regal lobby or the buffet breakfasts in three speciality restaurants, but the fact that the hotel transfers you to your office or meeting in the city free of charge if you notify them in advance. The hotel's seven restaurants are also a big draw with locals.
The 169-room Holiday Inn Downtown Kuwait – where the beige, earthy tones and courteous staff put you at ease instantly – is IHG's second Holiday Inn property in Kuwait and a worthwhile addition to the business hotel fraternity. The group will also open Intercontinental Kuwait by early 2008. Other big players include Rezidor SAS, which has announced one of the world's first Missoni hotels in Kuwait's Symphony Complex.
Rezidor is also introducing The Regent Kuwait, its first luxury Regent brand in the region, by the end of 2007. The 20-storey Monarch Hotel & Conference Center in Kuwait City, costing more than US$100 million, will open in February 2008 with 350 rooms. The nine-tower Kuwait Business Town, a community of banks, convention halls, retail stores and hotels will be ready by 2009.
But the real spotlight in Kuwait these days is on the new Peter Harradine-designed Sahara Golf & Country Club, a sprawling 18-hole grass golf course managed by PGA Golf Management near the Hunting & Equestrian Club. The 8,000sqm red brick clubhouse boasts seven food outlets and 21 chalets. A shopping mall and conference centre are also under construction, designed to lure not just golfers, but hard-core corporate visitors too.
Alber was right. It is a whole new ball game in Kuwait these days.
