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Introduction
 The
Hotel Association of Macedonia is a
voluntary and non-profit trade
association of hotel and catering
businesses in Macedonia. HOTAM works
to enhance and improve the hotel
business climate in Macedonia by
representing and promoting the
industry to the general public,
governmental bodies and allied
organizations within the country and
abroad. They assist the hotel, food
and beverage industry to improve
their sales and profits while
protecting the rights,
professionalism, ethics and
performance quality of the industry
through the establishment of ethics
and rating standards aligned with
those of the European Union.
The
OrganizationThe organization
was founded in 1992 as a group of
catering and tourism services within
the Economic Chamber of Macedonia.
In 2004 the Association was
reorganized in line with new
statutes adopted by the Chamber and
the elected management committee was
reduced from 11 to 7 members.
The
management team consists of the
management committee working closely
with the president, vice-president
and the board of directors. In
addition, an elected five-member
supervisory committee reviews all of
the organization's financial
activities. As the country strives
to move toward a market economy and
eventual integration into the EU the
sustainable development of
Macedonian tourism and the promotion
of inbound travel from foreign
markets has become a primary
activity of HOTAM.
ServicesHOTAM
provides a variety of services to
their members and to the travel and
tourism sector in general, including
organizing and participating in
numerous domestic and international
fairs and seminars. Regular and
special meetings are held for skills
transfer and information sharing.
The organization actively
participates in making and improving
industry regulations.
Hundreds
of thousands of full colour hotel
guides, brochures and flyers are
printed and distributed each year at
fairs and events to promote the
country as a desirable tourism
destination and to enhance the image
of the Macedonian hotel, food and
beverage industry. The president of
the Association represents the
membership with governmental
agencies, presides at regular and
special assembly meetings and
supervises the production and
distribution of updated hotel
directories and travel brochures to
member establishments.
Group
benefits such as coordination of the
members' dealings with purveyors and
distributors to obtain group rates
and discounts, along with an
initiative for obtaining lowered VAT
rates for the hotel and tourism
sector have been recently been
commenced by the president and a
three-person volunteer staff at the
Association's newly-established
office in Ohrid.
The MarketMost
of the larger hotel operations in
the country are active members, so
for the most part potential new
members are relatively small and
newly-formed businesses with limited
resources for training and
marketing. Membership in HOTAM can
help them improve their earnings and
increase the value of their
investments with sales and
management training as well as
sophisticated marketing information
and materials. The directory of
member hotels was recently converted
to an international symbol-based
format offering a much more
user-friendly and economical product
directed toward many expanding
nearby foreign markets.
There
are more than 100 businesses in
Macedonia involved with hotels. In
addition, there are potential
association members outside the
mainstream hotel industry, such as
guest houses, private lodging
services and tour companies offering
transportation and lodging packages.
Since
HOTAM's goal is to bring together
all interested parties in the hotel,
food and beverage industry, the
organization has a broad target
market with management focusing on
developing trends such as religious,
historical and eco-tourism,
independent travel, emerging hotel
operating companies (domestic
companies and individuals desiring
to bail out of other industries and
become hoteliers), international
operators poised to enter the
market, small family-owned
operations and alternative travel
and specialty tour companies
offering lodging.
Travel
agencies specializing on in-bound
tourism and even licensed tour
guides are prospects for membership
in the Association.
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