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  • Zoltan Konsanszky - "The Best Marketing For A Country Is Word Of Mou

    ZOLTAN KONSANSZKY - "THE BEST MARKETING FOR A COUNTRY IS WORD OF MOUTH"
    Sona Avagyan

    http://hetq.am/en/society/42416/
    2010/11/02 | 13:07

    society

    Hungarian Native is the Director of Sales & Marketing at Armenia
    Marriott Hotel

    "There is nothing impossible, just that people are incapable. In
    other words, I believe that basically if one dreams something, then
    he should also be able to execute it."

    This is the main motto of Zoltan Konsanszky, Director of Sales and
    Marketing at Armenia Marriott Hotel, Yerevan.

    Zoltan started his career at the Marriott Hotel 10 years ago during
    his college studies, when he worked as a waiter for 2 years, just
    like any other restaurant waiter in Budapest.

    "In Hungary the system is that you have special schools where you
    work one week and study one week. Between the ages of 14 and 17,
    one week was pure physical work, cutting vegetables on the board and
    one week was studying. This is how I started," Zoltan says.

    After graduating from the college, he became a sales executive at
    the Catering Division. Afterwards, he managed the Budapest Marriott
    Hotel Sales Department. From 2006 to 2010 he worked as Director of
    Event Management at the same hotel.

    Two years ago NATO's Informal Defense Ministerial Meeting was held
    in the Budapest Marriott Hotel. Zoltan was the point man to see that
    everything ran smoothly.

    "To reach tomorrow's goals one must be excellent today"

    "I think this event has been the highlight of my career so far. Back
    then, I basically said that by a certain time I would become an
    executive team member; and I made it. Now I already have my next goal
    in mind. This is nothing new. This is an approach passed down from
    all the masters of the world, painters, sculptors, and all different
    type of artists. Before you start out, you need to have a goal in
    your head at all levels of your life; for your private affairs and
    for your business. So this is already today's history, you have
    to focus on tomorrow. But in order to reach tomorrow you have to be
    excellent everyday at your job. It's really like an art," Zoltan
    Konsanszky says.

    In his words, life is a never-ending learning process and he is still
    at it. At the same time, he is not going to study the Armenian language
    since he thinks it's better to focus on something more realistic.

    "I think you have a very unique language. There are certain words
    which I know and I will get to know even more later on. But honestly,
    I don't think I will be able to learn the alphabet," Zoltan
    Konsanszky says.

    He has been working as a Director of Sales and Marketing at Armenia
    Marriott Hotel Yerevan for the past 10 months. He had visited Armenia
    for two days before taking the job and got to know Armenia a bit. "I
    had the chance to evaluate if I am coming or not, and I decided to
    come," Zoltan says. His grandparents had visited Armenia in the 70s
    and told Zoltan about their impressions. Zoltan came here buoyed with
    his grandfather's "sweet memories."

    Big difference in Hungarian, Armenian hotel markets

    In Zoltan's words, there are differences in the hotel markets between
    Hungary and Armenia. In the last 10 years Budapest has been a rapidly
    growing capital, very close to Western Europe. Because of distance,
    it's very easy to get to Budapest from other countries as opposed to
    Armenia. Thus, a lot of foreign investments were made in Hungary. In
    1989 there were only 4-5 international hotels in Budapest, but now
    there are twelve 5-star hotels and dozens of 4-star and 3-star hotels.

    The demand and supply in the market are much bigger in Hungary than
    in Armenia.

    Zoltan believes there is not enough "real" competition amongst
    hotels in Armenia and there are no equal hotels in Armenia both in
    price and in features, either. "Because of this, a lot of times
    it's like competing between "Porsche" and "Lada"," he says.

    At the same time Zoltan Konsanszky notes that the set-up, the type of
    business and focus of all the hotels, are totally different. Also,
    all Armenian hotels have a certain nice advantage, whether it is a
    pool, an atrium or a good location. So, all hotels, at least in one
    aspect are better than the rest.

    When Zoltan began working at Armenia Marriott Hotel, it seemed to him
    that the lobby was nice but a bit dark. So they redid the lobby. "One
    thing which is good about this company is that it's continuously
    changing. The Armenia Marriott is a good example. So I might say
    that I want to change this and that, but whatever I said yesterday
    is different today," he says.

    They have many plans for further changes and are going to complete
    guest room upgrades in December by changing the TVs to big, flat
    screen TVs and increasing the number of channels from 16 to 40.

    Zoltan wants to promote Armenia to the outside world

    Zoltan's desire is to have enough time and finances to promote
    Armenia outside Yerevan and abroad. He wants to make sure that people
    who have the potential to visit foreign countries think not only of
    going to the Far East, or Dubai, but also to Armenia and visit its
    picturesque sites.

    "It's important that we "Armenians" offer a good, memorable
    experience, a positive impression they can bring back and spread
    the word about. This is important because the best marketing for a
    country is word of mouth. And if one hotel is full then the next,
    the third and fourth will be full," Zoltan Konsanszky says.

    He has visited many sites in Armenia. He has been to Tatev, Garni,
    Geghard, Khor Virap, Marmashen, Gyumri, Artik, Sevan, Sevanavank,
    Etchmiadzin, the Zvartnots ruins and Tzaghadzor. He is impressed
    by the nature of Armenia but agrees that there is always more that
    should be done to protect nature. "Still, with the foreigner's eye,
    there are some very nice spots. Armenia definitely has a very special
    landscape," Zoltan Konsanszky says.

    Zoltan needs time to integrate into Armenian society. "I don't speak
    the language. So I don't know if I should talk about integration
    at all. I assume that to feel like a foreigner is a good approach,"
    he says.

    Sometimes he feels that people are looking at him when he walks in
    the street. But it doesn't make him feel uncomfortable. "I feel
    more uncomfortable because I am almost 2 meters tall", Zoltan
    jokes. "I've never had any bad experiences."

    He says there are similarities between Hungarians and Armenians. Both
    nations are hospitable and love to eat. Gata is Zoltan's favorite
    Armenian dish. Maybe the reason is that they don't bake anything like
    gata in Hungary. "Tolma is good and so is khorovats. But my favorite
    is gata, hands down," says Zoltan, who by the way, is originally a
    chief by profession.




    From: A. Papazian
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