Zarakh Iliev and God Nisanov have been announced as the Russia & CIS Hotel Investment Conference (RHIC) 2014 Leadership Award winners. The organisers of RHIC chose to honour Iliev and Nisanov in recognition of their contributions to the development of the hotel industry in the region.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) today announced the opening of Hyatt Regency Sochi, the third Hyatt-branded hotel in Russia. The 198-room hotel offers stunning panoramic city and sea views and will cater to business and leisure guests.
Oliver Eller has been named new general manager at the Baltschug Kempinski Moscow. He comes from the Hotel Adlon Kempinski where he is replaced by Emile Bootsma, coming from the Kempinski Corvinus Budapest. Eller replaces current GM Stephan Interthal who himself is moving to the Hotel Corvinus Kempinski in Budapest.
In 2013 Russia registered a huge increase in trips to foreign destinations and became Europe's third biggest foreign travel market, reporting around 32 million trips abroad. These are the latest findings of the World Travel Monitor, a survey carried out by IPK International. Since the start of the millennium Russia has become one of the few boom markets in international tourism. After 2000 Russia reported continuous double-digit growth, only marginally trailing other boom countries such as China. In 2013, with around 32 million trips abroad, Russia even overtook France. From 2010 to 2013 Russia accounted for around one-third of the growth in foreign trips by Europeans. Most of these were undertaken from Moscow and St. Petersburg, large cities in the western part of the country.
Moving from the Radisson Royal Hotel in Moscow, one of Stalin’s legendary ‘Seven Sisters’ skyscrapers, to his new address in the nineteenth-century building on Nevsky Prospect, Jesper Henriksen joins Corinthia St. Petersburg following a successful career spanning 34 years’ hotel experience in nine different cities worldwide. Jesper is an hotelier through and through. He has worked his way up the rungs in the hospitality industry, starting as a bellboy in his native Denmark in the 1980’s, and gradually progressing through a sales career path, arriving at his latest appointment as General Manager of the five-star Corinthia Hotel St. Petersburg. During his 30-year employment in the hospitality industry, Henriksen has gained experience worldwide, having worked in France, the United Arab Emirates and his native Denmark before becoming a general manager for the first time in 2002. Since then, he was been appointed as a general manager six times, working in cities including Brussels, Paris, Johannesburg and Moscow.
Petri Isomaki is now in charge of three Sokos Hotels in St. Petersburg as General Director of Sokotel LLC having also taken up the role of General Manager of Solo Sokos Hotel Palace Bridge. Petri, 37, was born in Finland and joined hotel business in 1999 as a bell boy at the Strand InterContinental Hotel in Helsinki (Hilton hotel nowadays). Petri learned the trade in various roles working up the ladder mainly in the front of house operations, reservations and revenue as well as in HR functions. He earned his degree in the Hotel and Congress Service Management program in 2001 at the Laurea Polytechnic in Finland and completed MBA studies at the University of Surrey Business School just last year. Through his career progression Petri has had a chance to work with well-known hotel brands such as Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Marriott. Petri started in his first General Manager role in London during 2010 with one of the Ramada Hotels and Resorts properties. During the years from 2002 to 2012 Petri was a part of the London hotel scene learning the secrets of the international hotel management in a demanding and busy environment. During the early 2013 he returned back to Finland to lead the Radisson Blu Royal hotel and prior to his move to St. Petersburg he was in charge of the Radisson Blu Plaza hotel, also located in the city center of Helsinki. Having now started in his new role as General Director, Petri is really keen to take the Sokos Hotels in St. Petersburg to the next level. As Petri says “The secret for the success formula is really simple – you must diligently and conscientiously work towards the set goals and dream big, have a positive energy with sales attitude, contribute, develop yourself and the team believing in your abilities and you will succeed in most areas in life and business.” As team work is vital, Petri concludes “I surround myself with positive and energetic people, real personalities who know their business, are professional and want to work as part of a team.”
In 2014 Stefan Kuehr was appointed as General Manager of Radisson Royal Hotel, Moscow, having replaced his predecessor Mr. Henriksen on this honorary and important position. Stefan Kuehr was born in 1978 in Lienz. He is a graduate of College for Hotel Industry Wilder Kaiser with diploma «Dipl. Hotelkaufmann», College for Tourism Industry with diploma «Dipl. Touristikkaufmann», University of Applied Science Kufstein with diploma «General Management & E-business management».
With an ideal position at the centre of the city and a beloved place in Russia's heritage, the new Four SeasonsHotel Moscow will soon reopen the doors to first class dining establishments, refined meeting and event spaces and the capital's finest accommodations, plus an all-new destination spa presented with warm, friendly and unparalleled levels of service.
Russia's economic difficulties and geopolitical challenges have been well documented in recent months. The country's economy is in a major slump, with some predicting another recession. Meanwhile, Russia's military actions in Ukraine have been condemned by Western nations, leading to strong economic sanctions. Yet according to a new report by travel industry research authority PhoCusWright, Eastern European Spotlight: Russia's Online Market Springs to Life, this upheaval has had little or no impact on the country's travel industry – at least not yet. And while Russia can still be characterized as an emerging online travel market, it now shows clear signs of maturation.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®), one of the world's largest hotel companies today announced the signing of Holiday Inn® Stavropol - the first internationally branded hotel in the city. IHG will manage the hotel on behalf of new owner Metropolia 26 LLC.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®), one of the world's largest hotel companies has announced the signing of Holiday Inn Express® Moscow - Sheremetyevo Airport. The hotel will operate under a management agreement with Palmira LLC.
As accounts of various infrastructure failures at Sochi hotels have surfaced throughout the 2014 Winter Olympics, property door locks and security have not been among them, thanks to the efforts of VingCard Elsafe, the global leader in hospitality security solutions and part of the ASSA ABLOY Group. Since the 2014 Winter Olympics were awarded to Sochi in 2007, VingCard Elsafe has been central to efforts in preparing and equipping the region's hotels for the influx of visitors brought on by the massive global event.
Leading Russian online hotel booking agency Oktogo.ru, now rebranded as Travel.ru has completed a two-way direct XML connection with eRevMax for seamless rate and booking management. Hotel companies partnering with Oktogo will now be able to make real-time ARI (Availability, Rates & Inventory) updates and receive bookings generated on these channels through eRevMax solutions directly into their property management system. Travel.ru will also benefit from eRevMax's Reservation Delivery service, which facilitates automatic transfer of reservations data booked through its site.
Sochi has been getting a bad rep when it comes to hotels, particularly since the #sochiproblems twitter madness, revealing yellow hotel water, stray animals occupying hotel rooms, etc., etc. But believe it or not, there are some very exceptional accommodations in Sochi (or to some -- the Russian Riviera), that border the region's stunning mountains and Black Sea waters. Hotel search www.trivago.com has put together a collection of five fine properties in Sochi that you would actually want to stay in.
Journalists who have arrived in Sochi, Russia, to cover the Winter Olympics are using Twitter to report and show appalling conditions in their hotel rooms, including a lack of such basics as heat, drinkable water, and Wi-Fi. These tweets spotlight the fact that, despite the $51 billion that Russia has spent preparing for the XXII Olympic Winter Games, many of the hotels in Sochi are still under construction. "Rooms will be missing vital elements like water, electricity, curtains, and even beds," says Russia travel expert Greg Tepper of Exeter International, who was in Sochi in October to check out the hotel construction progress—or lack thereof. Tepper has this advice for travelers headed to Sochi who know they will be staying in a new hotel...
Ted Knighton, Interstate Hotels & Resorts president & COO, discusses the reality of building in Sochi and provides insight into the challenges hotel operators are facing at the Olympics.
Carlson Rezidor, the leading international hotel operator in Russia/CIS and Baltics, is pleased to announce the opening of a new Park Inn by Radisson in Sochi, Russia's most popular resort city. Set in the picturesque surroundings of the Caucasus Mountains, framed by the rocky coastline of the Black Sea, Sochi is a must-see destination for the global traveller. The opening of Park Inn by Radisson City Center hotel takes the Carlson Rezidor portfolio in Russia to 26 hotels and 7,900 rooms in operation.
It’s like they’re back in the U.S.S.R. — athletes and fans staying in Sochi for the Winter Olympics say hotels are so shabby and bare-bones, they could pass for shanties from the Stalin era. Hotel sinks spit toxic yellow water, toilets barely flush and half-built hotel lobbies have lured mangy packs of stray dogs, say visitors frustrated by cold and cramped conditions.
Horwath HTL, Russia and Hungary have released a special market report on Sochi, that looks at the incredible development over last five years and the implications for sustainable tourism. The report, written by Managing Director Marius Gomola, MRICS, has the title "Sochi's Tourism Industry the Overall Gold Medal Favourite of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia" and is part of a series of special market reports written by Horwath HTL, the worlds largest and most experienced hotel and hospitality Brand.
Large crates of equipment stand unopened outside the entrance to the plush new Swissotel above Sochi as it scrambles to be ready for the start of the Winter Olympics. A bricklayer in a woolen hat puts the finishing touches to a nearby wall, workers in white helmets fix cables and others clear snow with shovels. Inside the hotel, new chairs are piled on top of each other in the lobby. Russian officials have declared Sochi ready for the Games, on which President Vladimir Putin has staked his and his country's reputation. But days before they open on Friday, the organizers acknowledge that not all the new hotels are ready, despite the Games' $50-billion price tag.