Maryam Jahrami is a trailblazer in Bahrain’s marketing landscape, bringing a wealth of experience and an innate understanding of brand excellence to her role as Cluster Marketing Director at Royal Saray Resort. With a career spanning diverse sectors like retail, hospitality, cosmetics, and luxury goods, Maryam is a success-driven specialist known for her customer-centric approach and focus on building brands with impactful results. Since stepping into the hospitality industry in 2017, she has set herself apart as a marketing leader, capable of driving innovation in every project.
Now, as she embarks on this new chapter at the Royal Saray in Bahrain, Maryam is set to lead the resort’s exciting transformation combining technological advancement and luxurious experiences in Bahrain’s tourism market.
Bahrain Confidential caught up with the marvellous marketer to learn more about her new role and the journey ahead.
At the Royal Saray Resort, we are elevating our resort to an unrivalled property with an entirely new phase of the resort launching. Recently, the resort opened ten new Royal Mansions with a total of ten rooms in each, adding 100 rooms to the resort, including wonderful private suites with a huge infinity pool and a chic coastal décor that dazzles with Arabian luxury. Moreover, the last quarter of 2024 looks to bring in a few more additions that complete our resort. Expect a luxurious spread of new amenities at the Royal Saray Resort.
The Royal Spa, by Clarins, is set to launch in early January 2025 with a collaboration with one of the world’s most highly respected skincare brands and their tried and tested products and treatments, alongside a brand-new gym with top-notch Technogym equipment, and our new project Al Massarah, Bahrain’s biggest pool club, restaurant and bar is set to take Bahrain’s scene by a storm.
Hospitality tech has accelerated rapidly in the past couple of years, with an increased interest in incorporating contact-less and self-service features, personalization, automated messaging, AI and VR. With all this new tech becoming mainstream, guests expect hotels to match the convenience they’ve started to enjoy while interacting with retail and e-commerce companies. However, the heart of hospitality remains a personal touch, which I am excited to discover by combining guest expectations with hotel applications that will be automated, intelligent, and deeply personal, all at the same time.
I was given the opportunity to intern at LVMH (Louis-Vuitton Moet Hennessy) under the brands Dior and Guerlain in New York City while I was doing my undergrad. I discovered a new passion for marketing and the constant innovation that it requires. Technology, customer trends and behaviours change all the time, and brands need to keep up to ensure that the messaging remains relevant and current.
Going back to the previous questions about new hospitality trends and tech, the hospitality business has been quite slow to adapt compared to other businesses. In Bahrain, we find ourselves living in a little bubble where personal touch still outweighs convenience for many, unlike the global trend. Bahrain is a small market with limited tools and features available (in terms of tech and AI integration across all marketing platforms), which means we will continue to play a catch-up game when it comes to markets that are leading in the roll-out of these new technologies, and that is a challenge for someone that has worked in data and technology-led markets.
I am in awe of Audemars Piguet’s social media marketing, I think their use of engagement marketing on social media is iconic. It’s important to market to future generations, and building a relationship with future buyers will help the longevity of the brand. In many cases, thinking ahead is what saves the trouble of having to catch up, and I always tend to favour innovative brands that can be used as a benchmark for my team and myself when setting our strategies.
