Who Is Tourism For?
The author challenges the industry's growth-at-all-costs mindset, arguing destinations must measure resident benefit alongside visitor volume and establish a transparent social contract for tourism.
Opinion Articles
The Concierge Who Read Everything
A hotel finance coach explains how consistent, public content creation over a decade led an AI to recommend him to a stranger, and what hospitality professionals can learn from that to build their own specialist reputation.
By David Lund, The Hotel Financial Coach, David Lund
What the First Half of 2026 Says About the Hotel Industry
A Newport Hospitality Group executive reflects on a stronger-than-expected H1 2026, cautioning against over-reliance on World Cup-boosted averages while urging owners to reinvest in existing assets and operators to focus on fundamentals.
By Andrew Carey, Chief Executive Officer, Newport Hospitality Group
The Hotel Industry Keeps Confusing Having AI With Having A Strategy
An opinion from the Hotel Data Conference argues that hotels are adopting AI as a buzzword rather than a solution, confusing predictive, generative, and autonomous systems with no clear operational strategy.
By Mark Charlinski, President & CCO, LodgIQ™
Beyond the Traditional GM: How Hotel Leadership Is Being Redefined
The GM role is evolving beyond operational control to demand emotional intelligence, digital fluency, cultural awareness, and sustainability accountability alongside traditional financial and service responsibilities.
By Dr Ajay Khatter, Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management, William Angliss Institute
Beyond the Budget: Building a Smarter Business Plan for 2027
Newport Hospitality Group outlines its three-part business planning framework, integrating a capital plan, commercial strategy, and operating budget to create a cohesive roadmap for ownership and operators.
By Wayne West III, President, Newport Hospitality Group
How Can Luxury Hotels Stay Authentic Without Diluting the Brand?
An industry perspective on why luxury hotels must define brand-specific authenticity rather than defaulting to warmth or informality, with practical questions for GMs on training judgment over scripts.
By Dr. Andreea Antonescu, Associate Professor, Les Roches
The Invisible Ink
Anthropic and other major AI providers now embed invisible watermarks in AI-generated text, per an EU transparency rule that took effect August 2, 2026, and this marking is global, not EU-only. The catch: a detected mark only shows content was processed by AI, not that AI wrote it, so a non-native speaker's human-written draft that got a grammar check can trigger the same flag as fully generated copy.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
The Measure of Meaning: Luxury Hospitality's Most Promising Era Is Just Beginning
The author introduces the Global Luxury Hospitality Hierarchy (GLHH), a five-criterion qualitative framework ranking 60+ operators on philosophy and distinctiveness, arguing these are now measurable and essential to durable pricing power.
By Yogesh Dutt, Chef Pâtissier and Founder, Abode of Yogi
Beyond Occupancy: Building Profit, Purpose, and Legacy in Hospitality
Westgate Resorts' Jared Saft argues that financial metrics alone don't define hospitality success, outlining how embedding philanthropy and people-first values into operations builds long-term resilience.
By Jared Saft, Chief Operating Officer, Westgate Resorts
The End of More for More’s Sake
Kempinski's CEO argues that luxury hospitality has confused abundance with value, and that the competitive edge belongs to hotels that offer precisely what matters rather than accumulating amenities and upsells.
By Barbara Muckermann, Group Chief Executive Officer, Kempinski
The Wrong Questions
Hospitality boards focus AI oversight on data privacy and vendor compliance, but rarely ask who is accountable when AI-driven operating decisions in revenue, F&B, or housekeeping go wrong.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
The Bridge Between Today's Hotel and Tomorrow's Hotel Starts with One Simple, Meaningful Step
A hospitality veteran argues that AI adoption succeeds only when hotels first clarify the experience they want to create, using personal stories from a hotel front desk and a New Orleans stay to illustrate the point.
By Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach for Hotels, Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach
The Discipline Era of Luxury Hospitality
Crescent Hotels & Resorts argues that luxury hospitality has entered a discipline era, where selective, operationally-ready expansion protects asset value and brand equity better than rapid scaling.
Behind the Smile: What Really Stresses CEOs and Managing Directors in Hospitality
An honest look at the hidden pressures facing hospitality CEOs and MDs: financial leakage, chronic staff turnover, real-time reputation risk, compliance shifts, and non-stop reinvestment demands.
By Francisca Fasua, Founder, Aurelia Hospitality Services
The Next Disruption Will Not Be a Cheaper OTA
AI travel agents could become the most powerful gatekeepers yet, deciding which hotels guests ever see, while hidden fees and labor reduction risks threaten luxury service quality.
By Anthony Paul Ruffino, Hotelier – Experienced Hotel Industry Professional, Hospitality Management Services, Inc
Inside Newport's Compass Circle Councils: Turning Collaboration into a Competitive Advantage
Newport Hospitality Group's Compass Circle Councils unite property and corporate leaders in two working groups covering commercial strategy and operations, sharing best practices across the portfolio to drive performance and owner returns.
By Whitney Altizer, Chief Commercial Officer, Newport Hospitality Group
We Were Never Eight, We Were One
An operator-turned-founder argues that hotel groups have optimized individual functions at the expense of cross-functional rhythm, and introduces PHAL OS, an AI leadership layer targeting top-10 hotel groups.
By Saurabh Prakash, CEO and Founder, PHAL
Luxury Begins Where Standards End
A hospitality veteran argues that emotional connection and cultural intelligence, not SOPs or luxury amenities, are the true differentiators driving long-term guest loyalty.
Hospitality Leadership Isn't About Having More Skills, It's About Having the Right Ones
EHL's new Hospitality Leadership Skills Report, based on 40 years of research and interviews with 22 senior executives, identifies 30 sub-skills across four domains, with self-leadership as the non-negotiable foundation.
By Bianca Lüthy and Dr. Sowon Kim