Hilton International’s “Business Travellers’ Guide — Middle East” has been withdrawn from circulation and destroyed by the order of the hotel chain’s president, Curt Strand, according to a Hilton spokesman.
William Prigge, Hilton International’s vice president of marketing telephoned The Southern Israelite to advise that Strand had ordered the publication destroyed because a listing on the inside back cover of the guide lists 76 million international hotels around the world, but does not include two Hilton hotels in Israel.
He said it is Hilton policy “that whenever we list the hotels operated by Hilton International, we include all hotels” and that the omission was not discovered “until we were carefully going over this with a fine tooth comb” after The Southern. Israelite reported last July 25 that the Middle East guide did not include the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Hilton hotels.
Peter Mahler, a Hilton representative, had earlier told The Southern Israelite that omitting Israel “is a must for doing business in the Arab countries.”
CONCEDES A STRATEGIC ERROR
According to Prigge, the listing of hotels on the bock cover “was in no way necessary or even appropriate” and was added to the brochure as “sort of a filler,” to utilize space remaining after the promotional material was complete. “We have to take complete editorial responsibility for it, “Prigge said, “but this particular insertion was done by someone of a law level in our, organization and not caught by anyone in the proofing process.”
Prigge also conceded that the designation of the brochure as a guide to the Middle East was a “strategic error.” He added that. “Israel … belongs in the Middle East.”
Despite Hilton’s explanation of the omission of the hotels from the world-wide list and its designation as a “Middle East” guide, Prigge defended the omission of descriptive material of the Israeli hotels in the body of the booklet because, he said, the booklet was sponsored by Gulf Air, the national airline of Bahrain which primarily serves the United Arab Emirates and other Arab states ground the Persian Gulf.
“The contents of the promotional pages we still think is quite appropriate because the distribution was to be accomplished through the cooperation and the expense of Gulf Air which does not serve Israel, ” Prigge said.
TOLD TO DESTROY BOOKLETS
There is no indication in the booklet, however, that it is other than a Hilton publication. The airline is represented only by an advertisement on the centerfold. That is the only advertising in the booklet and, according to Prigge, “for that advertising they paid for (the brochure) and had planned to distribute it.”
He said Hilton’s order to withdraw the literature from distribution was issued before Gulf Air had distributed it and “we . . . have gotten their supply back as well as our own. “Hilton has also assumed the printing costs, he added.
Asked how many of the 30,000 booklets printed had been returned, Prigge said in excess of 5,000 had been returned and destroyed from the New York office of Gulf Air, but he did not know how many had been destroyed in all. “What we did was to send a message to all of our sales offices all around and we just said ‘destroy them.’ We didn’t ask them to tell us how many they had,” Prigge said.
Alan Gould, another representative of Hilton International’s marketing department, was asked about a possibility which had been suggested by Mahler in the initial interview that two guide’s might be printed, “one for the Arab countries and one for the rest of the world.” Gould said, “I think if we printed something that is Gulf-oriented in nature, we will certainly give it a different name (from Middle East Guide). He repeated Prigge’s assurance that “Any place we do have a listing of hotels” should include all hotels.
However, he confirmed Mahler’s earlier statement that material in the Gulf States does not mention Israel. “There is no way we are going to cure that situation,” Gould said. “We are not in politics.”
Meanwhile, Nathaniel Saperstein; president of the National Council of Young Israel, announced that the Council will reconsider bids for that organization’s functions from the New York Hilton after it learned that the New York Hilton is not owned or operated by the Hilton International chain. Earlier, Young Israel, in considering bids for its national banquet next March, rejected the bid submitted by the New York Hilton.
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