All articles by Amit Thadani
Amit Thadani
Lead from the front
After carving out a reputation as something of a specialist in the luxury and premium hotel segment, Duncan O’Rourke was promoted to CEO for the extended Northern Europe division at Accor, taking charge of 1,100 hotels across 30 countries. Will Moffitt speaks to him about team management in a pandemic, Accor’s grand expansion plans and what hospitality can learn from Europe’s elite football clubs.
Life on the Nile
With spectacular beaches and a deep well of historical sites, Egypt has traditionally been one of the titans of global hospitality, welcoming millions of tourists each year. Yet since the upheavals of 2011, the country’s hotels have struggled. But for how long? Andrea Valentino talks to figures across Egyptian hospitality to learn about the challenges of the pandemic, how major investments in museums and infrastructure are boosting demand for new resorts, and what the future holds for Egypt and its tourists.
Kingdom come
Despite China leading the way in the global hospitality stakes, countries across the Middle East have recorded encouraging figures as far as hotel occupancy is concerned. With significant amounts of investment being poured into Saudi Arabia’s hospitality ventures, STR posits that the kingdom is showing promising signs of recovery as it continues to build its reputation as a burgeoning global tourism and hospitality hub.
HFTP Announces 2021 Paragon Award Recipients – Tanya Venegas and Sanjay Nadkarni
Both recipients have been essential to the association’s research and academic endeavors.
Food for thought
Despite experiencing the most challenging period in hospitality since the Second World War, London will birth an exciting crop of luxury hotels in 2021. One of these is the Carlton Tower Jumeirah, which will reopen this summer following a £100m renovation, with culinary excellence a key draw behind the reprisal of this iconic establishment. Will Moffitt speaks to Ludovic Simon, newly appointed head of food and beverage at the Carlton Tower, about the challenges of delivering formidable dining experiences during a pandemic.
The great reopening
Since beginning her career in the early ’90s, Felicity Black-Roberts, vice-president for acquisitions and development at Hyatt Europe, has been responsible for managing, acquiring and opening a range of hotel properties across the globe. To cope with the unique demands of the pandemic, she implores hoteliers to be more innovative in their thinking. As she explains, this requires an open-minded approach, a healthy disregard for convention and the ability to work quickly to test new ideas.
The world’s your office
While the ‘end of the office’ proclamations feel overstated, Covid-19 has reshaped global working patterns like never before as digital meetings and home offices have become staple parts of our new reality. For an industry that has been tapping into co-working spaces for some time, hotels now look well placed to capitalise on local cohorts of cooped-up workers looking for a change of scenery. Will Moffitt speaks to Stéphane Bensimon, CEO of Wojo, and James Wheatcroft, vice-president of marketing at Accor Northern Europe, about how hotels are capitalising on the co-working trend.
Prison to premium hotel
When it opens its freshly coated doors this summer, the Bodmin Jail Hotel will be liberated from its former role as a bastion of crime and punishment and offered a new lease of life as a boutique hotel. Far from being a unique conversion project, Bodmin joins an impressive roster of former jails that have become stylish hospitality ventures, including the Malmaison Hotel in Oxford and the Courthouse Hotel in London. Will Moffitt speaks to Matt Cartwright, a founding director of Twelve Architects, the company that led Bodmin’s re-design, about the challenges of turning this former clink into a vibrant hospitality space.
Healthier, happier hospitality
Even before the pandemic, more than half of hospitality workers did not make their employers aware of their mental health issues. Throw in the financial insecurity and social isolation caused by continual lockdowns and it becomes clear that the hospitality industry could be in the midst of a looming mental health crisis. Elly Earls speaks to Tim Etherington-Judge, founder of Healthy Hospo; Sue Harmsworth, founder of ESPA; and Mark Lewis, CEO of Hospitality Action, about how hoteliers can support staff and guests during this difficult period.
Today’s decisions for tomorrow’s hospitality
Technology is more important than ever: not only for the optimisation of a hotel’s daily processes, but also for its overall financial bottom line. It has become increasingly apparent that the proper implementation and integration of technology is vital to the future of the hospitality industry. HFTP’s Europe Hangout events seek to understand today’s hotel technology landscape, as well as where it is heading in the future, by opening up discussions with key decision makers and executives at major hospitality brands.