All articles by Amit Thadani
Amit Thadani
Adapt to expand
For hotels across the globe, the arrival of vaccine programmes has sparked welcome signs of recovery. While some have been happy to see guests return and finances reboot, others have continued to expand at a frenetic pace even as the pandemic remains far from over. Will Moffitt speaks to Elie Younes, executive vice-president and global chief development officer at Radisson Hotel Group, about proactive leadership, how the company has fared over an immensely challenging year and a half, the areas it is targeting for long-term growth, and the threat new Covid variants pose to hospitality.
Redefining wellness
Since the start of the pandemic, it’s no secret that hotels have had to adapt to be creative and to quickly respond to frenetic changes around them, in many cases putting the accelerator on trends that were already underway. Abi Millar runs through some of the key changes shaping hotel spa and amenities in light of Covid-19.
A labour of love
After securing his first big break as director of food and beverage for Hyatt in Washington DC, Manvinder Puri (MPS) has carved out a 50-year career in the hospitality industry. During that time he has created memorable restaurant concepts for many of the world’s leading brands. So what’s the key to his success? The Delhi-born restaurateur and food entrepreneur talks to Abi Millar about creating and sustaining iconic food and beverage offerings, how Covid-19 has impacted the industry, and why the younger generation shouldn’t be afraid of the long hours.
Mind the gap
At first glance the travel and tourism industry appears to lead the way when it comes to gender equality, with the hotel sector, in particular, making a concerted effort to keep men and women on an equal footing. Despite these efforts, however, the number of female employees still drops precipitously the higher up the ladder you climb. Elly Earls speaks to hospitality consultant Aradhana Khowala, Kerten Hospitality CEO Marloes Knippenburg, and Accor’s VP of diversity and inclusion, Anne-Sophie Beraud, to find out why so few women are in top leadership positions and asks what changes are required to make further progress on gender diversity.
A kingdom of possibilities
For decades, millions of people have flocked to Saudi Arabia each year as Muslim pilgrims to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Now, with the government eager to diversify the national economy away from oil and gas dependency, hotels and hospitality ventures are sprouting up all over the country. Andrea Valentino speaks to experts across Saudi hospitality to learn how the kingdom’s long heritage of Islamic tourism is shaping a new era of luxury hotel, and how the very structure of Saudi society will need to change if the revolution is to thrive.
Welcoming change
After working as a mobility instructor for 18 years for Guide Dogs UK, Gavin Neate saw first-hand the challenges visually impaired people face on a daily basis. It gave him an acute understanding of the wider disability sector and, coupled with an increasing interest in new and ground-breaking assistive technologies, it led him to create Neatebox. Founded in 2020 as a scalable and sustainable enterprise that creates solutions to help disabled people, the Edinburgh-based organisation’s app WelcoMe won the Inclusion and Empowerment Award at the UN-backed World Summit Awards (WSA) 2020. Neate tells Hotel Management International about the journey and challenges of developing these much needed products, and how hotels can be more inclusive to guests with disabilities.
Rethinking recruitment
Hospitality Professionals Association (HOSPA) discusses why investing in staff training can help tackle the current crisis facing the hospitality industry.
Bringing expertise to the table
In the hospitality industry, technology problems never fail to end. Fortunately, Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) continues to bring together industry participants from every segment – hoteliers, solution providers, consultants, and academia – to tackle the new and ongoing global technology problems that we find ourselves constantly facing in hospitality technology.
The infamous chip shortage
With ‘chip shortage’ the topic of interest this year, Jennifer Jones, guest blogger for HFTP at HITEC in Dallas 2021, discusses the infamous global chip shortage and how some industry vendors have continued to operate successfully.
Room to remember
In a world that feels like it’s hurtling into a chaotic and uncertain future, the lure of nostalgia is an intoxicating thing. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the sphere of hospitality design, where hotel designers are tapping into a yearning to go back in time. Will Moffitt speaks to James Twomey, architect and company director of ReardonSmith architects, about turning The Beaumont into a luxurious homage to 1920s Jazz age decadence, and Anne Becker Olins, senior vice president for luxury brands Europe, design & technical service at Accor, about revitalising the Old War Office (The OWO) and bringing the much coveted Raffles brand to London.