The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) — the voice of the global business travel industry — today announced the preliminary details of its leadership panel at the GBTA Europe Conference 2013, being held in Prague, Czech Republic on 23rd-25th September 2013.
Zuzana has gained valuable HR experience in the hospitality industry in Europe and the USA. She started her HR career in July 2003, as Training & Development Manager for Carnival Cruise Lines, where she was in charge of training and development for 600-1200 employees. In September 2007 Zuzana returned to Europe and since then has been Human Resources Director at Corinthia Hotel Prague (5*), Czech Republic. Zuzana graduated from Comenius University. In addition to her native Slovak, she speaks English and Czech fluently. She is interested in all kind of sports, and her two guiding principles are ”What goes around, comes around” and “Happy employees = happy guests”.
Dietmar Trimmel, 43, started his financial and hospitality career in 1993. Since then Dietmar has held high- level financial positions and has worked for Rogner Bad Blumau, Crowne Plaza Vienna, InterContinental Prague, InterContinental Warszawa, InterContinental Budapest and Mandarin Oriental Prague. Before the promotion, his position was Director of Finance and Business Development. Dietmar will continue to oversee the Finance Department. As he brings vast experience along with his understanding of the operational departments, his additional responsibilities as Director of Operations and Finance are F&B, the Rooms Division, Engineering and IT. Dietmar Trimmel was born in Oberwart, Austria, where he graduated from Tourism College. As well as his native German, he speaks fluent English and Czech. He is married with one son, Patrick (10). His hobbies are squash, football, and good food and beer.
Roko Palmic, 43, has extensive sales and marketing experience in the hospitality and tourism industry. Over the last few years Roko has worked as an external consultant at www.jumpup-consulting.com for various luxury hotels. In his previous consultancy appointments he worked as Director of Sales and Marketing in various hotels in Croatia and Austria, including the famous Hotel Sacher Wien, the Vienna Marriott Hotel, Austria Trend Hotels and the Rezidor Hotel Group (Cluster Sales for the Regent Hotel Zagreb, RadissonBlu Split and RadissonBlu Dubrovnik). Roko Palmic was born in Fürstenfeid, Austria and graduated from the Bad Ischl Tourism Management School, Austria. He speaks fluent Croatian, German and English. His hobbies include culture and travel, inline skating, swimming, healthy living, and good food and wine.
Four Seasons Hotel Prague announces the appointment of Claudio Roscigno as Director of Sales and Marketing. With almost a decade of five-star hospitality experience under his belt, Claudio brings a fresh perspective and dynamic management style to the historic and vibrant city of Prague.Born and raised in Arazzo, Italy, Claudio’s interest in the hospitality industry started from a young age. From Paris to London, Beirut and Lusaka, Claudio loves to discover new cities and cultures.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) - the voice of the global business travel industry – has released details of a new format and underlying theme for their annual European conference in 2013. The event, for approximately 400 industry professionals, will be held 23rd - 25th September at the Clarion Congress Hotel Prague, Czech Republic. The theme 'No Boundaries – Beyond the Process', and the related programme, will drill into issues facing travel managers, with 3 breakout streams dedicated to Strategy, Technology and Delivery. Buyer case studies delivered by the association's European Strategic Benchmark Group, a group of nearly twenty senior European based buyers, will feature heavily. The new format introduces a keynote address on the afternoon of the first day, followed by a networking reception. On the first morning of the conference, GBTA will present a major plenary session focused on key data points and a leadership panel to review and help buyers and suppliers devise their forward strategies for 2014. In addition, the conference will host the largest dedicated Give & Take℠ session ever, with all 400 delegates taking part simultaneously. The revised format is in response to previous years' delegate feedback and the positive results from the innovative Give & Take℠ approach to structured networking and exchange of knowledge and ideas. The event which is now in its 4th year now features a First Timers Welcome session. Delegates will also be guided through the conference with the new bespoke GBTA Conference app, available for download on their smartphones and tablet devices.The association has organised additional GBTA Academy educational programmes in the two days prior to the event, including the Fundamentals of Business Travel Management™ course, for those new to the industry or wanting a refresher course on the basics of travel management, and the Global Travel Professional™ (GTP) examination, the first ever industry certification for the business travel professional. Catherine McGavock, GBTA's Director for Europe commented, 'We are delighted to be bringing these enhancements to our conference but as ever the quality of content is king. Delegates leaving our event will be armed with all they need for the year ahead. We have been working closely with industry experts such as Amon Cohen, our conference moderator, and leading European buyers and suppliers to create a programme that will engage, educate and invigorate all who attend. We will be announcing more details on this in the coming weeks.'Registration for the event is now open at www.gbta.org/europeconference.
Despite a competitive hotel environment, hotels in Prague have witnessed a 6.3% growth in RevPAR in 2012 bolstered by a robust growth in inbound tourism. In 2013, we anticipate continued growth in trading performance due to a slowdown in supply growth and further interest in foreign tourists.
Born and raised in Prague, Tomas’s interest in wine started nine years ago while working as a bartender. “I always found wines more interesting than cocktails. You never stop learning, with so many varieties to choose from and taste. It is an ongoing process of gaining knowledge and I just love it,” expresses Tomas.
This market snapshot is part of a series of articles that HVS produces on key hotel sectors across Europe. In writing these articles we combine the expertise of HVS with STR Global data for each market. Our analysis is based on data for a sample of 74 mainly branded properties as provided by STR Global. Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, attracted more than 5.1 million visitor arrivals and 13.2 million bednights in 2011, representing an 8% (visitor arrivals) and 9% (bednights) increase on 2010. The majority of these were generated from international visitors, which accounted for 86% of total arrivals and 90% of total bednights
Ludek Louda, 52, has valuable experience in the hotel business and extensive experience in travel and aviation industry in Central & Eastern Europe. He started his hotel career as Director of Sales & Marketing in 2002 at the Holiday Inn Prague Congress Centre (IHG). He has worked for travel agency Detur as Country Manager of sales & marketing responsible for Turkey, Tunisia and Greece. In 2005 he came back to the hotel industry and since that time Ludek hold DOSM positions in different 5* hotels, especially in Russia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Turkey - Regional Sales Manager at the Renaissance Moscow, Director of Sales at the hotel Renaissance Atyrau, Director of sales & marketing at the Holiday Inn Samara, Director of sales & marketing responsible for Baltic States, Poland, Germany, Belarus and Russia at the Le Meridien Vilnius – Hotel & Golf Resort. His last position was DOSM at the Corinthia Nevsky Palace St. Petersburg. In his new role, Ludek will report directly to Alexander Schreiter, General Manager of the InterContinental Prague.
Oliver Geyer, 38, started his hotel career in 1995 at the Munich Park Hilton, Germany. He has worked for Hilton, Marriott and Kameha Hotels mainly in Germany, and this appointment is his first experience with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).
Dittrich joins the Augustine Hotel after spending more than 20 years as General Manager of various leading hotels across the globe, most recently as General Manager at the Corinthia hotel in St. Petersburg. Since the mid ‘90s, Dittrich has held Senior Executive level positions in some of the most prestigious hotels in the Far East, the US, and in particular, South America but he is now, he says, ready to return closer to home. Originally from Wuppertal, Germany, Dittrich studied hotel business administration at the Heidelberg Hotel School in Germany, having already spent time working in restaurants and hotels while he was finishing his education. He joined the Intercontinental Hotel Group in 1981 and gradually rose through its ranks before joining the Regent Singapore Hotel as Food & Beverage Manager. He moved to the Westin Hotel and Resort Group in 1989, first as Executive Assistant and then, after a number of other postings, joined the Westin Caesar Park Hotel in Panama as the General Manager in 1995.
HEDNA, the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association, will hold its Spring Meeting on 28-30 June 2011 at the Prague Marriott Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic. Innovation and knowledge are the key aspects of this meeting.
Alexander Schreiter took over from Kees Kramer, effective 17th January 2011. He has experience in 4 different countries, Bahrain, England, France and Germany... His first assignment as General Manager was in 2000 at the Forum Hotel Hamburg... In 2002 he moved to the Crowne Plaza Heidelberg and since 2006 he has managed the Crowne Plaza Hamburg.
Beauchamp is not new to Golden City; he was managing the Prague property for six years before he moved to Four Seasons Resort Provence at Terre Blanche.
Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: BEE) today announced that the company has signed a share purchase agreement for the sale of the InterContinental Prague to an investment group led by an affiliate of Westmont Hospitality for a total consideration of approximately euro 110.6 million, or approximately euro 297,000 per room.
Born in France with a MBA from Switzerland, Olivier joined Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in 2008 as Hotel Manager in Amman, Jordan. Prior to joining Four Seasons, Olivier had been working in the hotel industry for 16 years with Starwood Hotels in France, Italy, Switzerland and USA, including the St. Regis Hotel in New York. Olivier is married and has a five-year old son and one and a half year old daughter. He spends his free time with his family, enjoys skiing, any water sport, and running. Olivier speaks French, English and Italian.
Kees Kramer has been appointed General Manager of the InterContinental Prague, Czech republic, taking over from Robert Herr, effective 25 August 2010. Kees Kramer first joined IHG in 1973 as Divisional Operations Analyst EMEA and has held various positions such as EAM and Resident Manager InterContinental Riyadh and Resident Manager InterContinental Amman. Kees left IHG in 1984 and rejoined in 1997. Since then he held the positions of General Manager of the InterContinental Des Indes The Hague, General Manager of the InterContinental Tashkent and General Manager of the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Istanbul until 31 December 2007 when these two hotels left the group. In March 2008, Kees Kramer was appointed GM of the Crowne Plaza Amsterdam City Centre and during the past 2 years Kees has overseen the renovation of the hotel. In 2010 he was General Manager of InterContinental Kiev. In his new role, Kees will report directly to Rolf Hübner, Vice President Operations Central Europe.
NH Hoteles broadens its frontiers in Central Europe by entering the Czech Republic. A modern, central hotel, newly built, the cosmopolitan NH Praha Radlicka, makes for the arrival of the biggest Spanish hotel chain in the homeland of Kafka and Dvorak.
Jodi has extensive sales and marketing knowledge gained over 17 years of experience in the hospitality industry. She has been with The Rocco Forte Collection for seven years most recently as Director of Sales of Marketing at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester where she oversaw the development of core hotel strategy, sales, conferences, marketing, PR, revenue, groups and VIP’s. As part of her day-to-day role at The Lowry, Jodi closely monitored the business mix, maximized yield by managing on a daily basis and quickly reacted to the changing business environment.