Faisal Saeed al Romaithi is a rarity within the Emirati business community.
During breaks from university, shortly after his family opened Cassells Hotel Apartments in Abu Dhabi in 2000, Mr al Romaithi could be found working at the reception desk, booking reservations and checking in guests, or scrutinising rooms as the supervisor of housekeepers.
Over the years he has earned a Bachelor's degree in management and marketing, and a Master's in human resources management, while also working in his family's expanding hotel business as a sales and marketing director and general manager.
"Last week I was bored and I told the receptionist I'm working with you," says Mr al Romaithi, the vice chairman of Cassells Group, which opened a third hotel last year in Dubai. "I like to sit and talk with the guests. I like to get their feedback."
Emiratis including Mr al Romaithi make up only 0.96 per cent of people working in the regional tourism industry, which encompasses hotels, travels agencies and tour-guide outfits.
While 10 per cent of his own staff are Emiratis, he says his target is to quadruple that amount and ultimately have a staff wholly made up of Emiratis.
Mr al Romaithi has been busy tapping into industry data and his business network while researching his PhD thesis, the topic of which is why there are not more Emiratis in this sector, and how to change this.
"I hire locals," he says. "It was challenging at the beginning, especially because the families don't want their daughters and sons to work in hospitality because it's taboo.
"This is changing. People are understanding that tourism is a major contributor to the UAE economy."
Others in the industry have also seen changes. Toufic Tamin, the vice president of sales and marketing for the Middle East at Moevenpick Hotels & Resorts, says its UAE properties have been hiring more nationals for the sales department.
Mr Tamin says locals are also showing interest in working at the front desk and in public relations.
"Perhaps more attention or training should be given to the nationals for the food and beverage department because that is the thing we haven't seen much development in," he says. "But it will come. It should come."
Over the next year, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) is working to more than double the proportion of Emiratis in the capital's tourism sector to 2 per cent.
Atef Abdulla al Bastaki, who heads the ADTA's nationalisation initiatives, also oversees its Ambassador Programme, where university students and workers nominated by organisations, including Etihad Airways and the Abu Dhabi Police, are taught about local sites and history to help to educate foreign visitors.
"I'm promoting Emiratis in the industry and introducing the industry to the Emiratis," Mr al Bastaki says. "Basically, I'm the middle man."
And as that middle man he has quite a gap to bridge. He says there are 400 vacancies for Emiratis in the regional hotel business.
But while there are 12,000 nationals actively seeking jobs, they often disregard hospitality because the working hours are significantly longer than other sectors and earn lower overall pay.
That is why Mr al Bastaki and the ADTA have been working closely with hoteliers, some of whom have suggested flexible working hours to get more Emiratis into areas such as finance, marketing, human resources and administration.
He is also leading a team of colleagues from the ADTA to research how much Emiratis earn in the government sector compared with the private sector, and specifically within the hotel industry.
At the same time, Mr al Bastaki is working with outside partners to have funding introduced to help fill the salary gap for nationals interested working in this sector but deterred by lower wages.
"It's just going to take some time," he says.
nparmar@thenational.ae
More coverage from the Future Forum
The 12
England
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Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
Mountain%20Boy
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UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma
If you go
The flights
Etihad flies direct from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco from Dh5,760 return including taxes.
The car
Etihad Guest members get a 10 per cent worldwide discount when booking with Hertz, as well as earning miles on their rentals. A week's car hire costs from Dh1,500 including taxes.
The hotels
Along the route, Motel 6 (www.motel6.com) offers good value and comfort, with rooms from $55 (Dh202) per night including taxes. In Portland, the Jupiter Hotel (https://jupiterhotel.com/) has rooms from $165 (Dh606) per night including taxes. The Society Hotel https://thesocietyhotel.com/ has rooms from $130 (Dh478) per night including taxes.
More info
To keep up with constant developments in Portland, visit www.travelportland.com. Good guidebooks include the Lonely Planet guides to Northern California and Washington, Oregon & the Pacific Northwest.
McLaren GT specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed
Power: 620bhp
Torque: 630Nm
Price: Dh875,000
On sale: now
Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Company profile
Name: Oulo.com
Founder: Kamal Nazha
Based: Dubai
Founded: 2020
Number of employees: 5
Sector: Technology
Funding: $450,000
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
WWE Super ShowDown results
Seth Rollins beat Baron Corbin to retain his WWE Universal title
Finn Balor defeated Andrade to stay WWE Intercontinental Championship
Shane McMahon defeated Roman Reigns
Lars Sullivan won by disqualification against Lucha House Party
Randy Orton beats Triple H
Braun Strowman beats Bobby Lashley
Kofi Kingston wins against Dolph Zigggler to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Mansoor Al Shehail won the 50-man Battle Royal
The Undertaker beat Goldberg
Napoleon
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How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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