Grand Hotel Excelsior Malta
Grand Hotel Excelsior Malta celebrates its second birthday.
Having soft-opened two years ago with never an official opening as yet, Norbert Grixti, general manager for the Grand Hotel Excelsior claims that these past two years have been fantastic. His team of some 270 full employees and around 150 part-timers has hardly changed and is made up of 26 nationalities.
This year, however, a series of in-house events for the staff has been planned to mark the anniversary, with the highlight being a visit by President George Abela.
The hotel's upbeat mood is reflected in its performance. The fact that it is not located in a tourist resort has not interfered with its lucrative business meetings market.
"The leisure market is strong; 35 per cent of our clients are holidaymakers ", says Grixti.
The hotel enjoys "lots of tour operator traffic, but the amount of business meetings varies in accordance to the seasons", explains the Excelsior's GM. "In summer tour operators represent 45 per cent of our business. In the winter and spring it's MICE" (business meetings, incentives, conferences and events).
On a nationality basis, the Excelsior's main source markets for the leisure sector are Germany and the UK, plus Bulgaria - "we have an aggressive agent there".
Being a stone's throw from the capital, Valletta, it is not surprising that corporate business is equally strong in business meetings, as is the conference, meetings and incentive travel segment. But with the recession, MICE slowed down this year in Malta as elsewhere.
Nevertheless, next month, October, sees the opening of the new exhibition hall on the second level. "This will give us the opportunity to host any two business meetings events simultaneously".
To help bottom line figures, most hotels open their facilities to the general public. Not so the Excelsior. Grixti remains adamant that outlets such as the gym and the swimming pools be reserved for hotel guests only. And only guests can berth their boats in the hotel's private yacht marina.
The exception is the spa. Opened at the end of last year, this exceptional centre offers a variety of treatments by far eastern staff.
For further information on special offers on this hotel please contact Business Meetings Malta, the free conference venue finding company and DMC
email: theresa@businessmeetingsmalta.com