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Kamua… A New Chief Resumes At Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel

By Ajibola Amzat
17 October 2015   |   1:56 am
The new General Manger of Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel Lagos, Kelvin Kamua, is a hotelier by passion and profession. Though a graduate of Finance and Marketing, his interest for hospitality business predates his gradaution from college.
Kamua

Kamua

The new General Manger of Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel Lagos, Kelvin Kamua, is a hotelier by passion and profession. Though a graduate of Finance and Marketing, his interest for hospitality business predates his gradaution from college.

I started in hospitality industry by chance. I was going to university and I needed a part-time job. My first job was a house keeper in a hotel in Australia and the job paid some bills. But the guy in the hotel once said enough of the house keeping, let me teach you how the bar operates. And I ended up behind the bar. It has been a career since then.

For 13 years, Kamua has never looked back. Wihin these years, he had worked across different departments in hospitality business such as the bar, finance, front, desk and operation.

Today he is the GM of one of the global hotel brands in Lagos.
He attributed his steady rise partly to the undying words of the British Business tycon, Richard Branson: “If you do not enjoy what you do, you will never be successful at it. You can make money from it but you will never be successful at it”.
In an interview granted recently to select journalists, Mr. Kamua spoke about his journey to the top, and of his paln to reform Radission Blu Achorage hotel.

His Passion
“Hospitality to me is less a job and more of what I enjoy doing. I did my university in Australia where I specialized in finance and marketing. There, I happened to work in a hotel, and I loved it. Upon graduation, the options came for jobs in banks. But I chose hospitality because my heart is more with the business of people. I worked in a hotel and I liked it. Before then there were job opportunities in the bank but I chose hospitality.
“My passion with the hospitality industry started when I was young, we used to travel around. Then my parents used to take us around places, I was excited with what I saw, and that was how I got attracted to work in the hospitality industry. I started off in Australia moved around in some parts of Austra-Asia, then East Africa, Europe and now West Africa.

His Experience
“Nigeria is good, the people are very warm, and we have a fantastic team in Radisson Blu Anchorage. They are very willing to go the extra mile and that is a very good thing, especially in accomplishing great service delivery. we have been together with the team to put up the processes that will uplift the level of service in the industry.
“From what I hear and read, infrastructure (which used to be a problem) has been changing over the last years. Traffic has improved from the various governors in Lagos, especially Babatunde Fashola. Electricity power supply is improving a great deal. Our business is a growing one. We have plans to grow in Nigeria. We started with Radisson Blu Anchorage, and we are ready for business.

Radisson Blu Brand
“Our headquarters is in Belgium. It is an European-based brand. Carlson Rezidor is the mother company with eight brands under it of which Radisson is one of them. Radisson Blu is known for a very iconic and stylish hotel like this one; seating in front of the lagoon with a specific African feel and touch in the lobby, you can see the artwork, the walls and mirrors. They are known for very rich, stylish iconic hotel. But we blend that with the local feel and touch to ensure we are not losing the heritage of the brand.
“Though Radisson is an upscale brand, each Radisson maintains its own unique identity in terms of look and feel and at the same time that iconic feel never goes away. Perhaps, that is one of the best things about us. We have been around for eighteen years now, and have been in Nigeria for eight years, that was before the new brands come in town. We are the second oldest international brand in the market.

Status
“We are upper upscale. It means we compete at the same level with InterContinental. In Africa, there is a very thin line between luxury and upper upscale. We target the corporate traveller; that is our core business. At weekends we target the leisure travellers who can come in relax. We have several activities to indulge them over the weekend; we have Sunday Brunch, on Friday evenings, jazz on Thursdays. We create a blend of both to exceed our guests’ expectations.

Renovation
“We have refreshed the guest rooms. In refreshing all the rooms we took two things into consideration; critical systems, all the energy systems are upgraded, air condition systems are all upgraded. We have also perfect security in place for the safety of the guests; we have upgraded the CCTV, and the entire security systems and personnel.
“We have also worked on the meeting rooms. A lot of investments have gone into upgrading the meeting rooms with modern conference facilities and technology. There is wireless projector that enables you to project from the laptop to the screen. There are lots of technology-based innovations that are customer-focused like access to the room.
“The third thing we have done is that in the outlet, when you are done with your meeting, how do we upgrade our menus, our service levels and make it the right place to be.
Perhaps the fourth thing for me is the best. The best thing we have done is the training of the team. We spent a lot of time and energy doing this and it is a continuous process. We are training them and they are ready to work.

Others
“We have a fantastic Voyage Restaurant with special theme everyday of the week. Besides the Sunday Brunch, we have curries on Wednesday, African taste and fusion on Thursday, Sea food on Friday among others.
“Looking at the Surface Bar; a nice place to seat out in the lagoon, especially in the evenings it creates an ambiance for itself. There are live band performances on Wednesdays and Fridays, we have DJs that play of Friday nights and Sunday evenings to offer a little bit of entertainment to the market. Entertainment is important to both our leisure and corporate guests.

Competition
“Competition is healthier; it is a good thing for the market. The fact is that the Nigerian consumer is getting more aware and has a level of expectation now. First of all, competition is actually creating jobs. And from this we have talents that are developed to help up the service in the industry. It is a positive thing coming out of the competition.
“Another thing is that after the rebasing last year, Nigeria stands out as number one economy in Africa. So, there is a lot of additional investments. That means more travellers are coming and that is good for the overall GDP and the market because people will be able to spend more. The fact that international brands are investing in this market shows the confidence we have in the market and potential for growth in this market.

In the last few years, people have started tapping into tourism; both domestic and outbound tourism. When you put these together, the result is positive. It is not a bad thing to have competition. Again, everything around the market is beginning to perform a lot better. For instance the energy cost is more stablised now, and we hope it will further come down because that gives us opportunity to better satisfy our guests. The outlook for the economy is positive and we need to tap into that.
“Our core strategy is to maintain the service level and even build on that service level to be number in terms of hotel service.

Expansion
“There are lots of development plans for Nigeria; Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and some projects at these cities are in their advance stages. In a matter of weeks, we will be opening a hotel in Abeokuta. The expansion is sure because of the market confidence that we have. The demand and people are there, and the market is just ripe for the right hotels to come up to up the game and make it better for the consumer.

Training
“We believe in empowering people to take charge of responsibilities in Africa and not taking anything away from people. Radisson Blu works well in Africa because we believe in getting the right people on the job. If you look at our strategy, we understand the market, we have hotels such as the Park Inn in Abeokuta with a Nigerian general manager. We have a number of hotels in the market with Nigerian general managers. The strategy builds skills, confidence and creates a sense of belonging for our staff here. We have also exposed our staff to trainings overseas. My engineer went for a three-week training overseas to acquire the right skills and build his team when he returns.

Challenges
“There has been challenges, but they are normal challenges. There are some logistical challenges but we always fine ways around them.”

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