AIHM’s Head of Student Engagement, Samantha Lauver-Marion, sat down with HAFIDH AL BUSAIDY the General Manager at Niyama Private Islands Maldives to chat about careers in hospitality and the AIHM scholarship for Maldivians in honour of Dr. Maniku. This competitive full scholarship is available to Maldivian students who are interested in pursuing a career in hospitality management.
A Journey to the Maldives
Samantha: Thank you so much for joining us today. Could you tell our students a little bit about your career and what steps you took on your path before you became the General Manager at the beautiful Niyama Private Islands?
Hafidh: It was a long, interesting journey. I started off working in my hometown in Oman for a large hotel company. I was a steward. I had an entry-level job cleaning kitchens. I walked into the property and told them I was interested in working there. They put me in stewarding, which I found interesting and enjoyable. I worked in the kitchens at night. I took out the garbage. I cleaned the ovens and did the washing up, and I got to know people and through that became a waiter. I moved into fine dining and worked in F&B for some time. Then I moved to the front office and worked my way up to Front Office Manager. It took a couple of moves in the sense that within the same company I worked in one hotel and worked my way up to the level of a duty manager and then transferred within the company to another hotel, the Al Bustan Palace in Oman.
I started at the Al Bustan Palace as a duty manager, and by the time I left that property a few years later, I was acting General Manager. It was quite a journey. I had a lot of people that helped me along the way—mentors and managers who for some reason saw something in me they thought would be useful. I enjoyed the opportunity to get involved in different things. I wasn’t shy to get involved in banqueting requests and sales requests. And I had an interest in revenue management. I think all of that helped me grow in the position.
From there, I continued my GM career in Saudi Arabia. I worked in the InterContinental Al Jubail for a number of years, and that experience turned out to be quite successful. It wasn’t a very well-performing hotel at the time. I had a great team with me, and with that team, we managed to turn the property around. From there, I took a chance—much to everyone’s shock—and went to China, where I opened a couple of properties.
From China, I transferred to Doha as a General Manager and then from Doha to Japan, where I did another opening for Intercontinental in Osaka. After Japan, I went to Malaysia and worked for InterContinental there as a General Manager and then did a couple of additional projects for InterContinental. I worked on a project in Cambodia and then did a project in India, at which point I decided I would try something different and joined Minor.
I worked with Minor at their properties in Doha. I looked after the nine properties of Souq Waqif and the opening of the new Tivoli. And then, I think almost by chance, I was selected to come to Niyama and look after the property while the General Manager was away. And I’m still here six years later. So yes, it’s been a very long and interesting and mixed journey through many different countries. It’s been a journey which I’ve enjoyed considerably.
Leading in Paradise: Niyama Private Islands
Samantha: Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. I think it’s really important for students to hear about all the opportunities that are available for them in this industry and to also hear that—as you have expressed in your own reflection of where you’ve come from and where you are now— you’ve had many opportunities across several countries and in a variety of positions to allow you to be where you are today.
Since you’ve been with Niyama for six years, can you tell me what makes this property different from other properties you’ve worked at?
Hafidh: Well, obviously it’s in the Maldives, so the Maldives itself is a very different location from many other locations. For one thing, it’s quite remote. So it is quite challenging for people with families to come and work here. My family has pretty much grown up and spread their wings and moved on, which allowed me the opportunity to come here. It’s very luxury focused in the Maldives. The prices are very high. The guest expectations are equally high.
Working in an area like this also presents significant challenges in logistics and planning. You can’t just hop over to a supermarket and pick something up because you’ve run out of sugar. The destination has different challenges than most other places. I think it’s a great place to learn incredible service because the guest's expectation is so high. The interaction with guests is very, very detail-oriented. And that, you know, is a skill you can take with you anywhere. Anyone starting out in the Maldives is going to have quite an advantage because the challenges they’re going to face here are considerably greater than you would face in a city hotel or a resort whose location is more embedded within a community and all of its facilities and resources. Here, we produce our own energy. We produce our own water. We have to be self-sufficient, and that process involves a lot of different aspects.
I think my career prior to the Maldives was very beneficial in part because I’d been to so many different places. I’d had a chance to learn to be patient, to learn to listen to the culture that I was in. And I’d also taken the opportunity to get involved with so many different aspects of running a hotel. I think that’s fundamental to anybody who really wants to become a General Manager. Don’t be shy. Step out and enjoy the opportunities.
Sometimes people become very siloed and they say, “You know, I’m in F&B. I can only do F&B.” I find that a little bit sad sometimes because some great people who are working in a single area could definitely apply their skills to other areas and other departments. Some do it quite naturally, and some need a little bit of encouragement. They need to feel confident that they can achieve the same level of success in different areas.
The Maldives really highlights that you have to be able to multitask. You also have to be able to evaluate whether an idea is going to be viable to execute—much more so than you would have to in other locations. Given the special characteristics of the Maldives, it’s been quite gratifying being here. It feels like what people think working in a hotel is like. There is a certain glamour to it. There’s also a huge amount of hard work. So I think it’s a great starting point for people. It’s also a great place to be when people have a bit more confidence in their capabilities and have had some experience and understand the business well.
The Maldives matches both of these career contexts. If someone’s beginning and they want to see what it’s like to really work in luxury, then the Maldives is a great place to do that. If someone is confident and has experience and they’re willing to take on new challenges and grow quite dramatically, then the Maldives is also a great opportunity for that.
I love being here in the Maldives, and at Niyama in particular. I’m often asked why Niyama is special, and it’s an interesting question because I feel that it is a very unique place. I’ve been here for some time, which for me is also unusual. The hospitality industry is one with a tremendous amount of mobility. Normally, my contracts are for two to three years and then I’m happy to move on—not because I don’t like the place, but because I just feel that what I can contribute to that place has already been done and it may be better to have fresh eyes. But Niyama is different.
Niyama has this incredible sense of community. Our guests note this all the time. We receive a huge number of comments on the close-knit way our team interacts and responds. It’s a great group of people to work with. You cherish an opportunity to work with such a dynamic team. It’s everybody. It’s all our gardeners, our culinary specialists, our housekeepers. All our team members across the board are engaged. They’re enjoying what they’re doing.
I think we have a great level of communication here, a really extraordinary level of communication. That’s something any General Manager would strive to achieve, and we have it here. It’s hard to let go of it because it’s such a nice place to work. The team is dynamic. They want the property to be successful.
Apart from that, it’s stunningly beautiful. You know we’re a two-island property, and these are two of the most beautiful islands in the Maldives, with some of the best beaches in the Maldives, which we’ve won numerous awards for. Amidst all this beauty, we have an amazing team spirit here on Niyama’s islands, and I learn from the team every day. My team inspires me. They are the type of team that will get me out of bed in the morning with a big smile on my face. I’m excited to come to work. I’m excited to see what they’re doing. I’m excited to see how we can keep growing.
For me, Niyama is a very special place. For anyone who wants to come to do an internship here or any of the scholarship recipients who might want to work with us, I think Niyama would be a great place to come and feel confident. We encourage people to try new things. We encourage people to fail occasionally. That’s fine. What we want to see is them being engaged and enjoying what they do. We believe that reflects in our service. We know that reflects in the experiences of our guests who are here to enjoy their holidays. So yes, I’m kind of in love with Niyama just a little bit if you hadn’t got that message.
Recent Awards
- Conde Nast Traveller Middle East – Favourite Family Hotel of the Year in the Indian Ocean
- Wine Spectator Awards 2022 – Best of Award of Excellence
- Green Growth 2050 Gold
- Minor Sustainability Awards 2022 – Outstanding Sustainability Award
- Travel Trade Maldives 2022 – Best Culinary Resort and Most Picturesque Resorts
- Food and Hospitality Asia (FHAM) International Culinary Challenge and Exhibition 2022 – Multiple Wins
- Food and Hospitality (FHAM) Maldives – Multiple Prizes and Award for Housekeeping Team
- Hotel Asia Exhibition & International Culinary Challenge Maldives 2022 – Multiple Prizes
- Maldives Lifeguard Awards 2022 – Lifeguard of the Year, Best All-Round Female Lifeguard of the Year, Award for Excellence for Training & Development in Water Safety Beach Management
Opportunity of a Lifetime: The Dr. Maniku Scholarship for Maldivians
Samantha: Your passion can be felt. It’s so nice to hear how you speak about your team and about the property. I think it takes people like you who feel the way that you do about where you work and whom you work with to make the hospitality industry and our individual offerings as outstanding as they can be—in the Maldives and other destinations. So thank you for leading the way in this way. I truly believe it changes the world. Thank you also for expressing how special the Maldives is.
I second that the Maldives is an excellent opportunity for people at every stage of their careers. We have four students doing their internships with Minor Hotels properties right now. I see that Niyama and all of the Minor Hotels properties in the Maldives are supporting the growth of people’s careers in what they’re doing currently. I also see Niyama Private Islands specifically thinking in a long-term view by offering this scholarship in honour of Dr. Maniku. Could you tell our readers a bit more about this great opportunity?
Hafidh: You know Dr. Maniku was one of the key figures in the development of tourism in the Maldives, and his family continues to be a huge representative of how tourism and the Maldives grow. So it was quite fitting that we named the scholarship after him. It’s a great opportunity.
Within each country, there have to be opportunities for the population to really engage in and evolve this industry. This is particularly important for the Maldives because hospitality is such a big industry here. Maldivians have really thrived in the hospitality industry, and they’re great people to work with. As with many other destinations, much of the industry leadership here and the roles that require a very advanced level of industry expertise are still staffed by expatriate professionals. We would hope that at some point a lot of the expatriate leadership can be replaced by Maldivian leadership.
This process takes time because of the way the industry is structured. I really understand this dynamic because it reflects the same issues I faced when I was working in my home country of Oman. The opportunity to go abroad and really develop myself was given to me as I worked in a large company. Minor is growing, and they’re looking for talent. Within the Maldives, our obligation to make sure the Maldivian population is developing at a pace that allows them to take on leadership roles is critical. This situation in which a huge number of the properties here are run by expatriates can’t continue indefinitely. So I feel this scholarship for Maldivian nationals to study hospitality management and prepare themselves for roles as industry leaders are timely.
The Dr. Maniku Scholarship to help high-potential young people obtain a top-tier education in this field and attain such a valuable degree is an amazing opportunity. Plus, AIHM’s association with Les Roches and Minor—all three important industry players coming together to create this opportunity for Maldivians—is a wonderful thing. I encourage people to really take advantage of this opportunity. It will push aspiring hoteliers out of their comfort zone and take them to another huge tourist destination, Thailand, where AIHM is located. Students will be able to see different things, build their cultural awareness, to build their understanding of the industry outside the Maldives as well. That’s very important. It would have been difficult for me to come here straight out of Oman and be able to culturally assimilate, work seamlessly with the different nationalities we have working in the property, and create a harmonious team. It’s important that everybody is respectful and everybody understands each other’s habits and culture.
Strong cultural competency is also extremely important when we deal with guests from across the world. This has always been an issue in this industry. You have managers from all over the world because you have guests from all over the world, and we need to be able to attune ourselves closely to that without being overly culturally dominant. To lead in the global hospitality industry, you need a very worldly perspective and a high level of cross-cultural competency. It’s extremely important that more Maldivians have the opportunities required to grow into leadership positions. We need to continue to advance opportunities for Maldivians to develop a really comprehensive understanding of the hospitality business and the international perspective it requires.
Benefits of a Hospitality Education
Samantha: One of the remarkable things that I’ve noticed when I speak to leaders across our organisation is the way they speak about empowering the local populations wherever their hotels are located. You spoke so passionately about how the industry needs to empower Maldivians so more of them can become leaders themselves and also why the young professionals in the Maldives should take advantage of this scholarship opportunity. It’s a chance for us to create more diversity across the industry and to have more voices from within the Maldives to contribute to and lead the ways the industry will develop sustainably moving forward. Could you tell me why do you think that education is an important area to focus on when developing the hospitality industry?
Hafidh: This is an interesting point. I grew up and progressed in what might be considered the way of an old-school hotelier—in the sense that I went through pretty much every department. For someone looking in from the outside, that might still seem like an ideal path. Okay, you learn the business while you’re doing it. To a great extent, that way of learning in the industry is still incredibly important. I don’t think that the two—formal education and learning-by-doing—are not mutually exclusive. I think the two need to be done together.
The reason I believe the education part of the equation is so critical is that the industry is incredibly fast-moving. There are lots of moving parts involved in running a property, and even more so in the Maldives where we have to track weather, seaplanes, fuel, water, and all sorts of things normal hotels probably wouldn’t even consider. To have a strong practical and a strong theoretical understanding of how these processes work is critical because you really don’t have the time to start reconsidering or trying to find out how things work in the heat of the moment. You need to understand the processes. You need to understand how they function, even if you want to change them. You need to understand what is behind the scenes, and what is going to be impacted by the sort of changes you’re considering.
Also, the industry is becoming more and more complex in the sense that we have so many booking channels. We have so many ways that people see and hear us.
Then from a culinary perspective, the demands of guests are greater and more complicated. There are a huge variety of food types and cuisines you need to understand. Wine used to be the key thing you needed to know about in terms of beverages. Now, you have to understand tea. You have to understand coffee. You have to understand the difference between a cold press and a smoothie. These things sound trivial, and a lot of them are, but you really don’t have the time to learn about them when you’re already in a position where you’re responsible for them. If you don’t have the educational background already, you really don’t have time to be doing the research when you’re running a property, or when you’re a Food & Beverage Director, or even when you’re a receptionist.
You need to know how all these aspects of the industry work. That gives you a great advantage. Once you have the education, once you understand the process, you’re more likely to be able to insert your ideas if you want to change the process. If you want to look at different ways of doing things, that education will help you understand exactly what the changes mean in terms of the bigger picture and how those innovations or new ideas will impact the operation.
Education is critical. It also brings a sense of discipline. Fifty percent of going to university is about getting the work done in a timely manner and being able to present it well. It would be very foolish to say that anyone can present anything at any time. You need to learn the skills to do it. You need to understand your audience. You need to understand how to communicate with them.
Then lastly, but most importantly, is leadership. A lot of people come to me and say, “Well, you know, you’re a natural leader.” And that is tremendously far from the truth. I was an extremely shy person at one point in my life. Leadership doesn’t come naturally. You have to learn to be able to do certain specific things to be a good leader. You have to be able to learn to manage your responses. You have to learn to be able to manage your behaviour. This isn’t something that comes completely natural to anyone, I think. It’s a learning process. You develop an understanding of how your team will respond if you behave a certain way and how it’s important to be able to build teamwork. An understanding of leadership principles is something you can learn very well in an educational environment and then translate into practice during internships or when you work in properties.
Education plays an extremely critical role in developing the skills to truly succeed. Even in my career, I took time out. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to Cornell a couple of times to do other diplomas in hotel management. That allowed me to become disciplined. It allowed me to think differently without being sucked into a mindset that believes, “The hotel is run one way.” The hotel is not run one way. It’s run by all the people that work in it. If you’re the General Manager, your job is to make sure they have a really good environment to work in, that there’s no fear, and that they have the opportunity to express their ideas. You need confidence to do that, to stand up and confidently say, “Okay, this isn’t impossible. We can do this.” The team responds to that confidence. They respond well to that.
Leadership skills, presentation skills and understanding the process of what happens behind the scenes in a property—these three things are really critical.
The AIHM Advantage for Aspiring Hoteliers
Samantha: These skills and areas of knowledge you have mentioned are so valuable for our students to consider because those things are exactly what we’re asking students to do within their experience at AIHM. What we’re asking them to do is to have an experience, reflect upon it and then go to put it into practice. Once they do, they’re able to navigate between what they read about as best practice versus what can actually be done and implemented in the moment.
As you said, that’s critical in order to be able to deliver the high standards expected in the hotel industry. It’s very encouraging to know that what you are suggesting for students to think about as they progress through their education is the same that is being shared with them here at AIHM. When we’re developing our curriculum and we’re approaching the various aspects of this industry, we do work with leaders such as yourself to be able to make sure that we’re staying up to date with how things are changing. We’re always emphasising that being able to act in the moment takes time and preparation behind the scenes.
It’s also useful for our students to hear about how an individual can gain confidence and progress from someone who is maybe more reserved in the beginning into a confident leader. You can become a leader who people would say is natural. That’s very encouraging for our students to hear, especially at the beginning of their journeys. So thank you so much for sharing that.
You’ve spoken a little bit about this already, but could you just touch a little bit more on how students who complete their studies at AIHM grow within the hospitality industry?
Hafidh: The students have an opportunity to see and feel, in a very structured environment, what they need to learn. They have the opportunity to learn those things, and massively so. AIHM gives aspiring hoteliers such a great opportunity to work within the Asian hospitality market. They can do their internships right there in Bangkok, and they can do them in places like the Maldives. In the past, this has been a bit skewed towards Europe. I think it’s timely that we have an institute within Asia that allows aspiring hospitality leaders to see things slightly differently.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work across the world, and I’ve seen the differences in service cultures. If you take the service culture from a European capital, say Paris, and you compare that to Tokyo and then you compare that to Bangkok, they’re all somewhat different. They all create a very different impact on the guest. AIHM students have a great advantage in that they are able to see this first hand.
I think it’s also important that AIHM students are learning in an environment where they’re safe and fully supported. They are under the guidance of professors. They’re under the guidance of people whose sole purpose is their best interest, and I think that’s incredible. The hotel industry can at times be challenging. You know, not all managers are great, not all supervisors are great. And you need to be able to learn to navigate those sort of things. Having some grounding or basis in a safe environment that allows you to build that confidence in yourself is also quite critical.
Opening the Door to Hospitality Careers in the Maldives
Samantha: Thank you so much for reflecting back to us the importance of creating the space for students to try and fail and to learn and to grow so that when they do get into the industry they have confidence that’s going to take them even further.
My last question today is on behalf of the students or young professionals who are considering the Dr. Maniku Scholarship opportunity. What doors could this opportunity open for them in the Maldives specifically?
Hafidh: Oh wow, the opportunities are huge here. Particularly when you compare the environment in the Maldives to some other areas of the world, the Maldives presents massive opportunity to join a very vibrant and very robust hospitality industry that is constantly growing. I think this year alone we’re going to see 20 new properties within the Maldives. The hospitality industry is one that has grown very strongly in the Maldives. Particularly, the pay and benefits are especially great compared to other places. The Maldives offers great opportunities for well-trained individuals to step into highly desirable roles and roles with a high potential for career advancement.
Particularly in the Maldives, a lot of leaders champion a strong desire to grow the Maldivian leadership within the industry. Having a more Maldivian leaderships is so valuable because more than 50% of our working population is from the Maldives. Having local leaders in those roles can help. They can understand the culture better and be an advocate for local team members. They can be important advisors and share their locally informed knowledge with the rest of the leadership team.
Having a degree from AIHM underneath their belt will fast-track individuals. This educational experience will get them into the industry so quickly. They can join pretty much anywhere in the world in Minor alone. We just opened a hotel here this year. We have plans for more expansion within the Maldives. AIHM graduates will already be associated with Minor although they have the opportunity to look elsewhere. Just the special industry connections AIHM provides is by itself a huge opportunity for graduates to grow. It’s a fait accompli. If students do the work, if they understand what they’re being taught, if they challenge themselves, they have a huge opportunity here in the Maldives. Not only here, but elsewhere. Once you take someone somewhere else and open their eyes to other countries and opportunities, you gain an understanding that this is a job that can take you around the world. I’m from Oman, and I’ve opened hotels in Japan and China. There is no limited to where you can go and what experiences you can have. It can be hugely fulfilling.
Also, people often associate a European-style hospitality education with excellence. If you’re a General Manager with Swiss training for example, these are the people that have historically been very highly regarded. If you have accreditation from a school such as AIHM with its support from Les Roches, that’s very powerful.
Samantha: Thank you, Hafidh, for taking the time to sit down with me to discuss the AIHM Scholarship in honor of Dr. Maniku and for your inspirational words for the young professionals in the Maldives who are considering this opportunity. We look forward to receiving applications and new students in our upcoming intakes, which occur every year in September and April.
As you’ve shared so passionately, the Maldives is truly a special place and offers so much opportunity for aspiring leaders and trailblazers in this industry. AIHM is happy to share in the career journey of Maldivians who share your excitement for pushing the hospitality industry forward, growing it sustainably and empowering the next generation of hospitality leaders to achieve their dreams. Thank you.
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