ELITE TRAVEL TRENDS
ELITE TRAVEL TRENDS Geoffrey Gelardi – winner of the Mary Gostelow Award for hospitality – in background - Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso and ILTM Director Alison Gilmore ILTM 2018: FOCUS ON HEALTH & WELLNESS Europe’s highlight of the year for luxury travel is “feeling better than ever” Taking place during the first week of December once again in Cannes, ILTM 2018 was the biggest event to date of its kind, with 1,880 exhibitors from 101 countries, an 8.5% increase year-on-year. The event carried the theme of “Health and Wellness” with ILTM Director Alison Gilmore commenting: “In the future, all travel is wellness travel and every trip will be expected to enhance the physical, mental and social wellbeing of the traveller. Transformation is the very promise of travel, and today’s travel brands are the solution to one of the biggest problems of our age.” Ms Gilmore concluded: “ILTM once again proved to be not only the essential business meeting place for movers and shakers in luxury travel but a true platform to highlight the trends facing the luxury travel market in 2019 and beyond. Our journey continues throughout 2019 with 7 dedicated ILTM events in Africa, Arabia, Latin America, Asia Pacific, North America and China, culminating in next year’s flagship ILTM event in Cannes, taking place from 2 – 5 December.” TOP NEWS FROM ILTM 2018 GEOFFREY GELARDI WINS MARY GOSTELOW AWARD 2018 London’s longest serving general manager of a luxury property, Geoffrey Gelardi, was presented with the Mary Gostelow Award for hospitality during the opening forum of ILTM Cannes 2018. The prize was handed over by last year’s winner, Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso. IHG RELAUNCHES REGENT BRAND AND ANNOUNCES 200th HOTEL Tom Rowntree, VP Global Luxury Brands & Ginger Taggert VP, Global Marketing Luxury Portfolio outlined new brand strategy at ILTM Cannes. “This year has been rock’n’roll”, said Rowntree, as IHG has become the largest luxury operator in UK, launching the Kimpton brand in the UK, opening the 200 th Intercontinental worldwide, and introducing the Regent brand into the portfolio. IHG announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Regent Hotels & Resorts in March, bringing the brand into the top-end of its portfolio.
Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #41 2019 Winter Edition 23 23 UK-born Anthony Torkington - new General Manager at Relais & Châteaux Filip Boyen, CEO, Forbes Travel Guide, with Chris Fradin, VP Partner Services Europe – at ILTM Cannes HYATT AND SLH LAUNCH STRATEGIC LOYALTY ALLIANCE Small Luxury Hotels of the World has announced the launch of a plan to bring World of Hyatt members the chance to enjoy benefits in SLH hotels. The two hotel groups are working together to offer World of Hyatt members the opportunity to earn and redeem points during stays at participating SLH hotels when they book through Hyatt channels. OETKER COLLECTION LEVERAGES ILTM TO PROMOTE MASTERPIECE ESTATES Masterpiece Estates by Oetker Collection is the latest, most exclusive offering from Oetker Collection – launched officially in September 2018. Grand historical houses and unique estates in outstanding locations in the UK and eventually around the world, are being made available for completely private use. CAPELLA HOTEL GROUP ANNOUNCES NEW OPENINGS “Preserving tradition, heightening discovery, celebrating individuality” … that was the opening punch line for Nicolas Clayton, CEO of Capella group at his 2018 Press Conference. Clayton underlined the fact the Capella stands for independent leisure travellers, with a handful of hotels – now 8 in total. With the Capella Singapore making big news in 2018, thanks to the Trump–Kim summit, it created gave a big boost to Capella as a whole. The group’s brandnew property in Shanghai has just received a Michelin star for its Pierre Gagnaire restaurant. NEW CEO FOR FORBES TRAVEL GUIDE Known until just a couple of months ago for his role at the helm of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Filip Boyen has taken on a fresh challenge as CEO of the Forbes Travel Guide. At ILTM, he told us, “Most of our business is done in the Americas. In Europe, we need to definitely get the brand out there and make sure the consumer knows who we are, that the travel trade knows who we are, the hotels start to understand very well who we are, so it’s all about brand awareness and website visits that are very important to us.” FERRET MOVES FROM R&C TO SLH With a move in September 2018 by Jean- François Ferret from Relais et Châteaux to Small Luxury Hotels – taking over the role of CEO for the group, he told us, “Relais et Châteaux was more cuisine-driven and SLH is more hotel-business driven. Same positioning: high end, luxury, small, but with SLH it’s more balanced in terms of portfolio.” RELAIS & CHATEAUX TAKES ON A BRITISH ACCENT With 18 years’ experience running Relais & Chateaux properties and most recently running a Relais & Châteaux property near Bordeaux, UK-born Anthony Torkington this year took on the role of General Manager at Relais & Châteaux. He explained, “We are working on creating a new service for human resources, we are launching the new brand campaign in March of next year, the biggest brand campaign ever done…” VIRTUOSO @ ILTM Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch hosted a news conference at ILTM, underlining the fact that there are 62 new members of the network in Europe, which is now present in 50 countries. Over the past five years, growth in membership has been at a rate of 126%. Over the past year, hotel bookings through Virtuoso have risen 29% For full details of the above stories, go to www.hotelandtourismonline.com
