THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511160736
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Houmann Iskandani has been in the United States only nine years and has done what lifetime residents only dream of - he has rubbed elbows with the most powerful people in the land.
He was in the same convention hall with President Bill Clinton, shook hands with Vice President Al Gore and met and spoke to Cabinet members, congressmen and wheelers and dealers of every persuasion from every state in the union.
In the process, he had a chance to directly influence the direction of his chosen field - tourism - at the national level.
This all came about Oct. 30 and 31 at the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism, called by President Clinton to boost what has become the largest industry in the country.
Iskandani, manager of the Cavalier Hotel on the Hill in Virginia Beach, was among the 40 or so Virginia delegates to attend the session, which attracted nearly 1,700 people from across the country. Together, during the two-day meeting, Old Dominion representatives helped to adopt strategic goals aimed at strengthening tourism in the United States. It is an industry that employs more than 6 million people and brings in $58 billion in revenue each year.
A native of Iran, the 27-year-old Iskandani was the only so-called ``frontline'' tourism employee in Virginia to attend the conference and his presence was requested by none other than Susan Allen, wife of Virginia Gov. George Allen and head of the state delegation. He was at the Washington Sheraton with the likes of Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf and city tourism head James B. Ricketts.
``We're trying to convince Congress that this is really big business and that they really need to invest more money in it,'' said Iskandani later. ``We are number 33 in (tourism) advertising in the world.''
Iskandani's appearance at the conference and others like him from across the nation, was made at the insistence of the president, who saw the need for the ``little guys'' in the business to be represented in the deliberations.
``He was one of two people who received special recognition awards at the city's annual tourism industry award banquet,'' said Ricketts, who actually named Iskandani to the state delegation.
Iskandani also had been honored in 1994 by fellow workers at the Cavalier Hotel as ``employee of the year,'' another factor in his selection as a conference delegate.
A 6-footer with a quiet manner, Iskandani took an almost instant liking to his profession the moment he set foot on Cavalier Hotel property about five years ago.
He had come to the United States to study engineering at Old Dominion University, but soon decided that the field didn't interest him.
``I decided it was not for me,'' he said, and started at the Cavalier as a part-time bellman. He liked it so much he stayed.
Soon Iskandani was hired as a full-time employee and was moved to the hotel's banquet department. He was then promoted to the front desk and, in short order, he became assistant front office manager, then manager of the old Cavalier, the grand dame of resort hotels at the Beach.
He is the son of a retired middle-level budget management employee with the Iranian government. At the age of 13, Iskandani was sent by his father to live with family friends in Paris, just as the Iran-Iraq war began in 1982.
That was the last time he saw his father or mother or his younger brother - until the weekend of the Washington conference. There he and his father were reunited for the first time in 13 years. They have had several weeks to renew family ties and talk about old times.
And how about the future? Iskandani sees it in terms of the hotel business. First he wants to return to college - possibly Virginia Tech - and earn a degree in hotel management.
And, should fortune smile on him, he would like to own and operate his own hotel one day. Maybe even a chain of hotels.
``This is a great country,'' he says. ``If you work hard enough and try hard enough you can achieve the American dream.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
Housmann Iskandani, 27, who worked his way up from bellman to
manager of the Cavalier on the Hill, attended the White House
Conference on Travel and Tourism, called by President Clinton.
by CNB