EHMA looks to the future

Lugano feels like a suitably refined place for a luxury hotel conference. One of Switzerland’s prettiest lakeside towns, flanked by mountains and hills, and just a boat ride from Italy, this is a place tailor-made for hospitality.

No wonder, then, that many of the industry’s brightest stars recently met by Lake Lugano’s shores for the 48th Annual General Meeting of the European Hotel Managers Association (EHMA). With a broad tagline – ‘It’s all about passion’ – as their guiding principle, the continent’s top managers gathered for two busy days of speeches and talks.

Rewarding passion, looking to the future

This focus on passion is probably appropriate – not least given how dedicated hotel managers have had to be over the past few years. With lockdowns and travel bans ravaging the industry for the best part of 18 months, and restrictions still in place in some regions, Europe’s top managers have had to use all their experience and resourcefulness to thrive since the pandemic began. It is no wonder that the conference was also a perfect opportunity for the industry to honour their own, those heroes who proved just how much hard work can achieve for guests and colleagues alike.

Not that the Lugano conference was merely a chance to celebrate hospitality’s successes in trying times – it was the first time, in fact, that the association had been able to meet since before the pandemic. On the contrary, EHMA delegates also had their gaze set firmly on the future, with events on sustainability and resilience in hospitality testament to the conference’s forward-thinking dynamism. As the attendees met for their farewell brunch at the elegant Swiss Diamond Hotel, they surely had every right to feel confidence in the year ahead. If they have come through what the hotel gods have thrown at them since March 2020, then whatever comes tomorrow should be simple enough.

Reflections and predictions

It is hard to overstate the scale and influence of EHMA. Founded in Rome in 1974, the group was built around the principles of quality service and professionalism. Given how far the association has come over the following 48 years, you have to say it has been a success. These days, EHMA boasts some 400 members representing 23 European companies. Of these, 300 are general managers at some of the continent’s most prestigious hotels, from Milan’s Principe di Savoia to the Grand Hyatt in Athens. All told, EHMA represents around 85,000 individual hotel rooms and 65,000 employees.

This breadth was certainly reflected at EHMA’s Lugano conference as speakers came from across the continent. The first day alone saw speeches from Dr Jens Zimmer Christensen (Denmark), Marco Truffelli (Italy) and Ian Millar (UK). Yet if delegates travelled far and wide to reach the Ticino, everyone was uniformly conscious of the momentous changes wrought by Covid-19. Typical here were the comments of Roland Fasel, COO at Aman Resorts. “I often say from a crisis comes clarity,” he explained. “This period has allowed the industry to really reflect and take stock of how to move forward in such a drastically changed travel climate.”

Among other things, Fasel emphasised the continuing challenge of recruitment in the wake of the Great Resignation – a phenomenon that saw a million US hospitality workers leave their jobs in November 2021 alone. Other speakers agreed. “In the immediate future,” argued Shannon Knapp, president and CEO of Leading Hotels of the World, “labour will continue to be a challenge, particularly for the luxury hospitality sector that relies so heavily on our staff – as the soul of the hotel – to deliver that extraordinary luxury experience travellers expect.” At the same time, Knapp continued, the pandemic and its consequences underlined the potential difficulty of providing stellar service using digital platforms alone.

This is fair enough; remote check-in and room service may have been reassuring in 2020, but nothing can beat a warm smile and a hand with the luggage. There is evidence, moreover, that as Covid-19 recedes, this is exactly what customers want. According to work by PwC, 74% of non-US consumers are looking for more human interaction going forward.

If the conference was united in pinpointing the difficulties of the pandemic, however, it was similarly unified in highlighting solutions. When it came to the question of recruitment, for instance, Knapp described how the industry had to offer more flexible career paths – making it easier to attract talent from outside hospitality. Fasel concurred, suggesting that better pay and a more positive work culture were just two ways of keeping staff engagement high. Fortunately, the industry appears to be doing just that. In France, to give just one example, hospitality organisations recently offered employees average wage increases of over 15%.

Although digitalisation risks dampening the special joys of luxury travel, delegates were just as keen to see the bright side of technology. As Ezio A Indiani made clear, this is particularly true in the realm of analytics.

“Increased virtual communication with the customer has led us to improve analytics, which allow us to personalise their stay and align services and experiences to their preferences,” explained Indiani, general manager at the Principe di Savoia and the association’s outgoing president. “This is a big competitive factor, especially in luxury travel.”

Once again, there is evidence that the industry is taking this advice to heart. As a 2020 survey by Statista found, 50% of travel and hospitality companies now consider customer data analytics “very important”, with 23% describing it as “critical”.

Raise a glass

Though much of the conference focused on big themes like digitalisation, delegates also took time to congratulate individual high-achievers. Perhaps the most moving example here was the Best Practices Award gifted to Antonella Ferro.

As the owner and general manager of the Courtyard by Marriott Rome Central Park, she has lately been as busy as any of her peers. Yet Ferro also transformed her property into a quarantine centre at the height of Italy’s coronavirus crisis and helped organise emergency donations to needy Italians. But arguably Ferro’s most touching act was also her most personal, when she welcomed a baby girl suffering from spinal muscular atrophy into her hotel for free. Obviously, passion for EHMA’s members is about more than mere customer satisfaction.

In their own way, EHMA’s other award winners were just as impressive. The association’s hotel manager of the year, for instance, was Guilherme Costa. The general manager at the Four Seasons Hotel, The Ritz Lisbon, for over 15 years, Costa has been instrumental in transforming the hotel into one of Portugal’s most admired properties. That covers everything from investing in a spa to building a new restaurant with direct access from the street. The latter, for its part, promptly went on to win a Michelin star in its first year of operation. An energetic member of the hotel fraternity, Costa has also contributed to the professional development of many of Europe’s top hotel managers and chefs. No wonder Indiani described Costa as “highly regarded and respected” by his peers.

Yet, even as EHMA raised a glass of the local red to its champions, delegates always kept an eye on deeper trends. Nowhere was this truer than the association’s Sustainability Award, which was won this year by Greek hotelier Markos Tzamalis, COO at Phaea Resorts, whose work at the Cretan Malia Park Hotel in particular garnered special attention. Among Tzamalis’ efforts included encouraging staff to farm their own land and using organic ingredients in the hotel kitchen.

Although Tzamalis ultimately came out on top, it is equally clear that other European hoteliers are moving in the same direction. Properties in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands were all shortlisted for their environmental work this year – not bad given EHMA only started its sustainability prize around a decade ago.

City slicking

This focus on the future – what could be more important to our grandchildren’s prosperity than sustainability? – also extended to other corners of this year’s conference. Not for nothing, the association put great stock in its ‘Young EHMA’ scheme, whereby deserving young hoteliers could participate in EHMA’s AGM. More to the point, there is plenty of evidence that these up-and-coming insiders are proving themselves just as dedicated and passionate as their older colleagues. This was personified by Fabrizio Ilara, who was lauded for his original and sophisticated business case.

In the same vein, EHMA is also preparing for future conferences. Next year’s event will be held at The Ritz in Lisbon, a thoroughly appropriate setting given Guilherme Costa’s recent triumph. In 2024, meanwhile, the association will be heading to Venice. As EHMA guests were told when the announcement was made: “Venice is more than just a city.”

It is certainly true that something can be more than the sum of its parts, and that is also true of EHMA. As its conference in Lugano handily proved, this is an organisation that appreciates both the past and the future, never seeming to neglect either.