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ALEXANDRIA LIBRARY EYES CONFERENCE CIRCUIT

By Philip Whitfield

It took a quarter of a century to take the idea of rebuilding the Alexandria Library from concept to completion. The next stage may only take three years. Library director Ismail Serageldin hopes to open a 400-room luxury hotel to cater to A-class conference delegates. “There’s already been a lot of interest from a number of hotel companies and I expect to go ahead with the project soon,” he told Business Monthly.

The proposed hotel would take advantage of the library’s untapped conference potential. The library and its associated Bibliotheca Alexandrina Conference Center (BACC) boast four main conference halls, including a fully equipped 3,000-square-meter auditorium that accommodates 1,630 people. They also have a number of small meeting rooms and seminar halls. The two small exhibition halls, however, are more suited for art exhibits than commercial events.

Despite these facilities, the library has failed to attract large international events. Its largest conferences – including last month’s second Arab Reform Conference – have involved just a few hundred delegates. Conference organizers attribute this to a number of factors, but say the main reason is because Alexandria has a shortage of suitable hotel rooms. There are currently about 750 suitable hotel rooms in the Mediterranean city; far too few to accommodate a major international event.

“The problem is finding enough accommodation for the number of people involved in an exhibition,” explains Raymond Cahill, chairman of Cairo-based International Event Partners. “You have to put up the people who assemble the booths as well as the people who man them. Over five days of an exhibition you could have many thousands of visitors.”

Some Alexandria hotels have their own conference facilities, but according to Cahill they are too small for major events. “As well as bedrooms, you need a spacious exhibition hall that can accommodate the needs of international companies. Much as we’d like to consider Alex, we find there really isn’t enough of each at the moment.”

Serageldin’s vision is a top-notch hotel for A-class conference delegates – professionals who would appreciate the library’s ambience and stay in Egypt for a few extra days to take in Alexandria’s ancient sights. Tour operators, who say conference inquiries have picked up considerably in the past nine months, point out that lawyers, doctors and architects budget upwards of $3,000 to attend a major event hosted in a luxury environment.

The site being shown to prospective hotel builders is a four-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Corniche. Known locally as the Kouta, the plot faces the Mediterranean and is just 50 meters from the BACC, close to the library. “What could be better?” says Serageldin enthusiastically. “People attending a conference can just walk across from the hotel we are proposing.”

Rather than ruffling the feathers of the city’s hoteliers, the proposal has won support from those who have mutual interest in promoting Alexandria as a conference destination. Should the 400-room hotel succeed in luring major international events, all of the city’s top hotels stand to benefit from the spill-over clientele.

“It would be a beautiful site for a new hotel,” says Omar Hegazi, operations manager at the Hilton Alexandria, Green Plaza. “I would think that Hilton would want to take a serious look at the site as a project.”

Serageldin brushes aside concerns over spoiling the appearance of the library. “The proposed hotel site is south of the library and will not impact its visual appearance,” he says. Neither does he foresee any difficulty in obtaining approval for the project. “It would be a landlord and tenant arrangement. The library would be the landlord and would receive rent from the hotel.”

The project also sits well with Serageldin’s commitment to move the library towards financial independence. Revenues from operating activities, such as entry tickets, memberships and a book fair, amounted to £E 5.2 million in FY 2003-04 against operating expenses of £E 70.9 million. Even with a government allocation of £E 20.8 million and foreign grants of £E 24.9, the library ran £E 4 million in the red.

One of Serageldin’s priorities is to investigate, create and market new revenue opportunities. “We are putting the emphasis on marketing to promote the benefits of partnering with the library. A new hotel has been in our minds for some time and I am confident we will find the right hotel company.”

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