Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has appointed Ashraf El Zahed as the new director of hotel marketing Middle East. 

El Zahed will oversee the marketing functions of existing and upcoming Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in the Middle East and Egypt, working closely with the sales, catering, revenue management, public relations and communications teams at individual properties as well as with corporate public relations and marketing, worldwide sales offices and regional revenue management teams, towards an integrated and sustained corporate focus on the Middle East region as an important growth market, a statement from the leading operator of luxury hotel and resorts said. 

El Zahed takes on his new position following four years as senior director of marketing GCC, it said.

“Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts already has a significant presence in the Middle East with 9 properties. An enhanced corporate push in this region complements our robust developmental pipeline and builds on our long-term commitment to the region and to the development of an integrated Middle East marketing effort,” said David Crowl, vice president, sales and marketing, EMEA.

Ensuring alignment with the company’s global corporate strategy, efforts will focus on three key aspects of business: people, in terms of human resource development; product, through working with the hotel management teams on company-wide programs; profit, through deploying effective strategies; and programs, to ensure hotels are achieving their financial objectives, the statement said.

He will continue to be based in Doha, alongside regional vice president, Simon Casson. Prior to his four years at the property as senior director of marketing GCC, El Zahed served as opening director of marketing at the Doha property for three years, following on from the position of opening director of sales and marketing at Four Seasons Hotel Amman for two years and previously as opening director of sales at Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at First Residence in his native, Egypt, it said.

In the Middle East and Egypt, Four Seasons currently operates hotels and resorts in Riyadh, Beirut, Doha, Damascus, Amman, Alexandria, Cairo (at the First Residence and at Nile Plaza) and a resort property in Sharm El Sheikh.

The hospitality company is set to continue establishing a superior standard of product and service in the region with a number of new projects in development including a property in Abu Dhabi at Sowwah Island which is due to open in 2014, Oman at Jebel Sifah to open in 2015, Bahrain at Bahrain Bay due to open in 2014, and a second property in Doha at the Pearl, in 2014. – TradeArabia News Service