Fes Hotels sat down with Saad Hamoumi one of the premier Moroccan travel agents to ask him about business travel and conferences in Fes. Mr. Hamoumi is the president of Ulysse Voyage, and has arranged travel services for Pepsi, Boeing, Unilever, Kipling, Lafarge, Nokia, Emirates Airlines and others. Ulysse Voyage  is also a partner in the Uniglobe Travel Network, the largest network of travel agents in the world.

Fes Hotels: Mr. Hamoumi, can you describe what accomodations exist for business travelers in Fes?

Hamoumi: The city of Fes has many five star hotels that we recommend. Our first choice would Sofitel Palais Jamai, which is a 5 star palace managed by Accor. After that, the Merinides, Jnan Palace and Royal Mirage are all solid 5 star options. There are several good 3 and 4 star hotels as well.

Fes Hotels: Fes was named to the list of Top 10 Cities to Visit in 2009. If a company was wanting to do a business conference there to allow attendees to enjoy the city, would this be possible?

Hamoumi: Yes. While Marrakech gets a lot of the press for things like this, we have arranged multiple conferences in Fes. The most recent ones were a conference for the 1200 year anniversary of Fes for around 300 people and the Power Card seminar with HPS, where 250 people from several different countries gathered for a three day conference. Both of these events were very successful thanks to the professionalism, hospitality and serenity that the participants found in this ancient city.

Fes Hotels: What reasons would someone want to do a conference in Fes as opposed to something in a European city?

Hamoumi: Fes is an excellent spot for a conference because it has a special atmosphere that is unique in our world. Fes is actually a sister city of Florence, Italy and offers a similar culturally rich experience. A few benefits to having the conference in Fes would be the change of scenery for the visitors. Attendees would feel detached from the hurriedness of life in today’s big cities and could enjoy the peaceful atmosphere in Fes. Moroccans are renowned for their hospitality and would treat the attendees with utmost of warmth. Fes is a quick flight from Europe and not to bad from the US. The pricing of hotels and tourism services in Fes is a much better deal than those in Europe for a similar type event. In addition to the conference, attendees would have a great opportunity to do some “extra-curricular activities” like visiting the Sahara desert, hiking in the mountains or taking in sun on the beach. All of these things make Fes an extremely attractive destination for someone wanting to do a conference that really makes the attendees feel like they are attending an event to remember.

The prices in Morocco in general and Fes in particular are often 30-50% less than those same quality of services in Europe. In addition, we can adapt all kinds of budgets and provide counseling to make any event a success.

Fes Hotels: Now, Fes is known for being medieval. Are the hotels in Fes capable of handling a modern, technology driven business conference?

Hamoumi: The hotels of Fes have all the infrastructure to host big events. They have well equipped conference rooms, simultaneous translation services, audio visual systems, security and the extras like dedicated staff and limousines if you they were needed. We organize events in the city that deliver service according to international standards. A person who is planning to organize a seminar or conference in Fes would have the same quality of services as the best of the European cities.

Fes Hotels: Thank you Mr. Hamoumi for your time and your expertise. It has been a pleasure.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Hotels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.