In her new role, Katerina will lead the group’s Asia Pacific and China development teams in sourcing management agreements and investment opportunities, to spearhead the regional growth of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts®, New World Hotels & Resorts and pentahotels.
Lucie LEBOURGEOIS (ESSEC IMHI 2006) has been appointed Assistant Vice President at Churchill Finance Hong Kong after 7 years spent in French Guiana, working for several companies. Her last position was Managing Director for the Hotel La Chaumière.
As an international hotelier who has true passion for the industry, Mr. Simmons has an impressive career in hospitality management spanning in Australia, United Kingdom and throughout Asia Pacific for over 20 years. Mr. Simmons has numerous years of experience in various hospitality disciplines, from Revenue Management through Front Office Operations to Marketing and Sales in a number of properties, including the prominent Hyatt Regency Birmingham in United Kingdom, Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok in Thailand and Hyatt Regency Dubai in United Arab Emirates. Mr. Simmons was appointed as the General Manager at Hyatt Regency Johor Bahru in Malaysia in 2007 and then moved to Grand Hyatt Macau in 2009 and responsible for hotel operations and revenue management initiatives which proved his strong leadership skills with strategic directions. Most recently, Mr. Simmons was the General Manager of Hyatt Regency Hotel and Casino Manila.
HVS, the world's leading hospitality consulting and services organization is pleased to share that its HVS Executive Search division, now has an even stronger ability to provide global executive search expertise, having added Asia as a continent to its existing portfolio.
Digital marketing for hotels is complex. In an ideal world every hotel would like 100% of their online bookings to be made directly with the hotel via their website, mobile website or via their Facebook page. The reality however is that this is almost never possible unless you are the only operator in town. Most hotels will therefore use third party distributors like OTAs or the GDS network to complement their direct sales efforts, and then work to get a good balance between them.
Executive Housekeeper Ryo Miura joined InterContinental Hong Kong earlier this fall after serving as Executive Housekeeper at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong for the past three years. Prior to that, Ryo spent four and a half years as Assistant Executive Housekeeper at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong. He was on the pre-opening team of the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo in 2005-2006 and has also worked at the Mandarin Oriental Miami. Ryo is a graduate of the International College of Hospitality Management “Cesar Ritz” in Connecticut in the USA. He also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and an Associate Degree in Information Technology from Obirin University in his native Tokyo, Japan. As Executive Housekeeper, Ryo overseas a team of 112 persons in the Housekeeping Department, which includes room butlers, supervisors, quality leaders and public area cleaners, as well as the hotel’s in-house laundry team of 28 persons. As per Ryo, “My role is to make our department and the hotel operation run smoothly and to recognise and develop our colleagues. Our Housekeeping job is not just cleaning; but also to make our guests feel happy.”
An IHG veteran with 14 years with the company, Michaël Bélanger joined InterContinental Hong Kong in the fall as Director of Revenue, following three and a half years at InterContinental Singapore as Director of Rooms and previously Director of Revenue. Prior to that, he spent four years at InterContinental Dubai Festival City, working in Revenue Management. His career with IHG began back in 2001 at InterContinental Montreal where he worked in various departments from Sales & E-Commerce to Front Office and Food & Beverage. Originally from Quebec City, Michaël was a guest speaker at Cornell University-NTU (Hospitality Management School) in 2011 & 2012. An avid sportsman, he was Team Manager & Captain of the Singapore ScotiaBank Ice Hockey Team from 2012-2014 and has already joined a Hong Kong Ice Hockey Team. While living in Singapore, he was also a member of the Canadian Dragons Singapore Dragon Boat Team from 2011 – 2014 and plans to join InterContinental Hong Kong’s Dragon Boat team in 2015.
Originally from the UK, Linda Hodgson brings over 20 years of sales & marketing, management and leadership experience to her role at InterContinental Hong Kong. Following almost a decade with IHG and 12 years in the USA, she has relocated to Hong Kong from New York, where she served as Director of Sales & Marketing for InterContinental Times Square from September 2009 to June 2014. In fact, she was a member of that hotel’s pre-opening team. Prior to that, Linda was Director of Sales & Marketing at the InterContinental Barclay in New York from 2005 - 2009. Her career includes postings at other luxury hotels including the Langham Hotel Boston, The Langham Hilton London and InterContinental Park Lane London. She also served as Director of National Sales for Hilton Hotels Corporation (New York) and was Area Director of Sales for Marriott Hotels of London.
– The second-annual Hotel Management Asia Summit last month, which focused on challenging the existing hotel business model in preparation for the changing business environments, attracted 120 senior hoteliers who learned about innovative management, human resources, sales and marketing and performance evaluation strategies.
Echoing Mira Moon's dedication to serving travelers in style, we are proud to be the first hotel on Hong Kong Island to launch the Tesla S electrifying limousine service. In collaboration with Tesla Signatures, Mira Moon will continue to make sure guests travel through Hong Kong in style, whether they are hopping to or from the airport or visiting the landmarks our city has to offer. Hong Kong's fashionably tech-friendly storied hotel and Mira Hotel Collection property has won a number of noteworthy accolades and recognitions in the first year of operations. Mira Moon Hotel in thrilling Causeway Bay now also becomes the first Hong Kong Island hotel to have the head-turning Tesla added to the limousine service options, giving travelers an over-the-moon experience well before they set foot in the 91-room hotel. Opened to great fanfare in November 2013 the hotel is the first true story line hotel in Hong Kong, uniquely themed after the Chinese mid-autumn moon mythology, conceptualized by the famed Dutch designer Marcel Wanders.
As part of its continuing marketing efforts and to promote the destinations where its operations are located as well as to market its portfolio of hotels, Dorsett Hospitality International played host to a group of UK press.
SHATEC, the training arm of the Singapore Hotel Association, recently inked a Landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with one of Asia's top universities in hospitality and tourism management - the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). The educational partnership will see both institutions collaborate to deliver quality hospitality and tourism education in Singapore.
Specialisation and segmentation are key future trends for Asia's luxury hospitality design industry, according to the regular roundtable series hosted and organised by BLINK Design Group. The group of experts, representing some of the most prestigious names in the hospitality industry and covering operators and owners, gathered recently in Hong Kong at the Yah Toh Heen restaurant in the InterContinental Hong Kong on the fringes of the annual HICAP event.
What is the hotel room of the future? How does it appeal to the next generation of connected world travellers? The School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Hotel ICON are determined to find out with their designated rooms for research and development – "Tomorrow's Guestrooms".
Mr Ulf Bremer, general manager of the deluxe harbour-front Kowloon Shangri-La, Hong Kong, is pleased to announce the appointment of Julian Wipper to the position of resident manager, effective 18 August 2014.
While declines in inbound tourism in mainland China abated, mainland Chinese outbound tourism to Hong Kong and Macau slowed. Hong Kong received 13.8 million visitors in the second quarter of 2014, reflecting a 9.6% yearon-year (YOY) growth from the same period in 2013. The single-digit increase in visitor arrivals was mainly attributable to the lacklustre growth in the dominant mainland Chinese market.
In Asia, where consumer trends are continuously shifting the way online travel brands build and market their product offerings, there is everything to play for. With votes now in from a recent EyeforTravel survey, which asked senior travel executives to share what they see as emerging opportunities in APAC, we outline five not-to -be-missed online marketing trends in travel right now.
The business tourism market is not homogenous, according to Professor Bob McKercher and Grace Ho of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in a recently published research paper. The "filtering effect" of distance influences the tourist profiles and behavioural patterns of business visitors from short- and long-haul source markets. Focusing on in-bound tourists to Hong Kong, the researchers reveal that despite general similarities, the two types of visitor have different profiles and travel, activity and expenditure patterns. Knowledge of these differences, they argue, will be beneficial to hospitality and tourism enterprises and the local destination marketing organisation.
As no travel experience should be the same, in continuing to providing quality accommodation for different travellers, Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong welcomes newly refashioned Superior Room and Premier Room in its collection with Both completely made over, Superior Room at this Hotel Causeway Bay Hong Kong is now presented with a serene design while Premier Room, is promised to help craft a refined travel memory.
Swissôtel Beijing, Hong Kong Macau Center has appointed Stephen Fewell as general manager. Fewell arrives back at Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts after holding the title of general manager for Langham Place Hotel, Beijing, China. Fewell started with Swissôtel in 2008 as the general manager of Swissôtel Kunshan and later moved to the Swissôtel in Sochi, where he and his team prepared for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.