Klaus Graesslin has taken over as the new general manager of the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain.
Graesslin replaces Aqeel Raees who has been promoted as the chief executive officer of Bahrain Hotels Company. Prior to this appointment, Graesslin was the general manager of Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. Graesslin brings with him over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry having held various senior positions in different international chain of hotels. He is also no newcomer to Bahrain or Gulf Hotel as he has worked as the executive assistant manager at the hotel from 1993 to 1996. He said Bahrain's tourism industry has come a long way since then. "The pitch to draw international tourists from beyond the Gulf was just getting underway then," he recalled. "Most people coming here were business travellers but convention and exhibition facilities were not nearly as developed then as they have become." Graesslin believes Bahrain has a promising future in terms of attracting tourists and meetings, incentive, convention and exhibition visitors. Graesslin comes from Kandern, in Germany's Black Forest, near the border with France and Switzerland. In 1976, he earned a degree in food and beverage management from the Hotel School in Villingen, Germany. He has had stints in several hotels in Europe, besides working at the Dubai Inter-Continental Hotel and a number of Hyatt properties across Asia.