With relaxation of full lockdown measures now finally in sight, the hospitality industry is waking up to a new set of opportunities and challenges. What underlying concerns do we foresee need to be addressed going forward for the extended stay market and the corporate housing model?
Lorenzo Stoll is a proud EHL alumnus with an illustrious career spanning years at Nestlé, and more recently, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), where he is now head of its Swiss WorldCargo airfreight division. Both as a student and as a business client, Lorenzo has lived the EHL Student Business Project experience from all sides. He is a great advocate of the fresh, thinking-out-of-the-box perspective that an SBP can bring to any company seeking to up its game and carve out new creative solutions.
Malcolm Kerr, Managing Director of Horwath HTL UK has been talking to prominent executives and advisors to get their perspective on the major challenges facing owners and how they are preparing for an uncertain future.
How much does the impact of your diet weigh on your carbon footprint? How can you eat more sustainably? How to make an informed choice at the supermarket? All of these questions seem overwhelming at the start but can easily be addressed with a bit of research and new habits. In the following text I’ve tried to give you my take on some of these questions of sustainability without any guarantee of completeness. It's a hot topic where many of us agree or disagree, however, there are three inescapable things we should all agree on when it comes down to a more sustainable way of living: reduce, reuse, recycle.
The Swiss Alps have always been a popular tourist destination, with demand for reservations at ski resorts, restaurants, and other hospitality-oriented businesses in the mountains seeing a sharp increase in recent seasons.
With a 40% drop in the number of overnight stays in 2020, the Swiss hotel sector is on the verge of suffocation. An exceptional season this summer, however, could limit the damage.
Currently kicking up a storm in the EHL food court, these deeply rich chocolate brownies should please everyone's palate since they are devoid of the commonly-known troublesome ingredients.
EHL Success Stories: Start-Up Edition is a series to show support to our EHL Family and, more specifically, our hard-working AEHL entrepreneurs. This project aims to showcase EHL's entrepreneur mindsets, support new and upcoming ideas and businesses. While overcoming a challenging time for all companies, these Start Ups prove that resilience and hard work can overcome any problem.
In 2020, EHL and Changins wine school launched a study on Swiss wines and the impact of Covid-19. Since a semblance of returning to normal is taking shape, the time seems opportune to summarize this project, taking care to place the Covid-19 crisis in a more general context. The aim is, in particular, to tackle the fundamental problems that affect Swiss wines and to try to identify possible solutions. The following analysis is based on interviews conducted with wine producers and key market players during the second half of 2020.
The best teacher tools online selected by our EHL faculty members. An overview of what these teaching apps can really bring to the online and blended learning classroom and to the learning outcomes.
Five years ago, the future of Swiss winter ski resorts was somewhat dim, after consecutive winter seasons with little to no snow and despite a relatively stable number of tourists. There was a perception at that time that existing resorts would be required to transition into four-season resorts simply to continue to exist. That dim view became somewhat rosier, when the snows returned and top resorts saw the return of skiers in record numbers of visitors for the next three winters, climaxing in 2019.
London has reopened. In fact, London was perennially open for the 25 years that I lived in the town before the pandemic hit. Hence there was no rush for me to rediscover the Capital even though it is an ever-changing metropolis. But Covid-19 has changed our perspective about wanting to escape to far-flung cities for a few days rather than being content to explore our own hometown. A few days ago, I took my son to see the Brent reservoir known as ‘the Welsh Harp’. It isn’t that far from my home but I got close to it only once, on a bike trip to Wembley.
A picture is worth a thousand potential visitors to a destination! Destination marketing organizations have used photos to inform, persuade and remind tourists. The popularity of selfie culture further reinforces the importance of pictures, as millennials always search for that Kodak moment! Yet, is there a method to select the best images to promote a destination? After one and a half years of research, we have developed the "Imagery Diagnosis Model," which is the answer.
Swissness is a synonym for precision, serenity, cleanliness, reliability and fairness, - and is marketed as being typically "Swiss", (Swiss Confederation). What steps can be taken to preserve this country's reputation for being a hub of natural beauty and civic efficiency when it comes to sustainable hospitality?
It's in human nature to become defensive every time that we feel threatened. Evolutionarily, this strategy has had a positive outcome for us because we have survived and prospered. However, in the context of doing business, playing safe and not considering the changes occurring in the ecosystem where you are operating has not always resulted in success, especially nowadays when disruptive innovations transform the world and the way we live.
Switzerland may be small in size, but it is home to one of the world's most competitive and innovative economies in the world, ranking second in Europe and fifth in the world according to the World Economic Forum's 2019 Global Competitiveness Report. It's also the kind of place where an apprentice can one day become a President of the Swiss Confederation, a CEO of the largest Swiss banking institution in the world or a Director of one of the country's biggest open-air music festivals.
During the Easter holidays, before the pandemic, I took my son to see the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden and promised to give him a tour of the Museum of London near the Barbican Centre the following year. However, it is the second Easter running that our museums and galleries have been closed. So I decided instead to show him the Tower of London from the outside. I have to confess that I myself have never been inside the Tower even though I have lived in London for the last 26 years. Perhaps a UNESCO World Heritage Site on our doorstep doesn't attract us as much as one further afield.
Visiting London ranks high on the wish-list of many people around the world who want to explore the town, and yet many native Londoners rarely venture beyond the river to see the other side of their city. More than 20 million tourists visited London in 2019 but the figures for 2020 tell a different story. Many businesses in the West End of London rely heavily on the tourist trade so it was not an easy year for them. The official guide, Visit London, launched a campaign last summer called 'Because I'm a Londoner' to promote tourism in the Capital. The song 'Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner' was made popular by the music hall duo, Flanagan & Allen, before I was born. However, the line 'I think of her wherever I go' still strikes a chord with me. There is a new hotel due to open in Central London called The Londoner.
The UK is witnessing a tentative re-opening now that we are at the end of March. Monday 29th saw the end of the Stay At Home rule in England and the fresh ability to meet up in private gardens. Frustratingly, this lifting of restrictions does not include hospitality's super clean and COVID safe premises until April 12th 'at the earliest'. I am regularly amused and impressed by stories of pubs and restaurants creating spaces to allow customers to sit outdoors. Once again it shows the entrepreneurial spirit and determination to find ways to open up and generate some revenue. What was once a backyard used solely for storing bins and beer barrels has been cleaned up and tables installed. Outdoor eating and drinking opportunities have been created in car parks, fields, pavements, and children's playgrounds. And why not? I have no doubt that the demand will be enormous, come 12th April.
It has been over a year since I boarded a Eurostar train from St. Pancras in London to Paris. The journey was ominous as Covid-19 loomed large. What the pandemic would entail was anybody's guess. The estimated number of 20,000 deaths due to Covid-19 in the UK seemed preposterous.