RIXOS:june09 25/06/2009 09:37 Page 92
What brought you into the hospitality industry? Was this what you
always expected you would do? And what is Rixos’ history as a com-
pany? How did it begin, and how has it changed and expanded over
the years?
Antalya, located on the Mediterranean coast, was known as the jewel
of the tourism and hotel industry of Turkey, and I was involved in this
sector from very early on in my career. However, my real involvement
began in 2000 with the establishment of Rixos Hotels, when we built Your properties range all over the map in terms of design, location,
and started to manage our first hotel here. etc. What is the vision for Rixos properties as a whole?
The idea to build a hotel and, more importantly, to build and man- In general, the philosophy of the Rixos brand is built on aiming to
age a hotel with a different concept came to mind as Antalya’s tourism be the best. It is not enough for us to fulfill the guest satisfaction, we
rapidly increased. Demand for hotels was based on the need to close this have to go beyond that and overwhelm the guest. We do trust ourselves
gap, as there weren’t any luxury hotels or resorts available. We knew with this. We try to create different concepts and develop various activ-
that a permanent solution would come. We believed that we had to cre- ities and tourism models for different tastes and demands that will help
ate a new and suitable concept, which we did, calling “all inclusive – all distinguishing us from our competitors.
exclusive”.
In the following years we enhanced this concept, as well as hotels we What do you think sets Rixos apart from other luxury resorts and
built, and added to our chain. We continue, even today, to work on fur- hotels?
ther improvements on this concept in order to differentiate ourselves All guests staying at a hotel would like to be privileged and have a
from our competitors as our aim is to create an art form of vacation, es- private service. We have built our strategy on the idea of providing a
pecially within our resort hotels. particular and private service to each individual guest. The way that we
would serve a guest would not differ from the way we treat a VIP or a
How has your experience with construction and real estate devel- celebrity. “Here, you are the celebrity”.
opment affected how you create the Rixos hotels?
As I was also active in construction sector, I remember that the first
significant work we had was the construction of the first hotel building,
which subsequently triggered the idea to manage the building as well.
“Here, you are
This was the main motivation for how Rixos come to life. There was defi-
nitely an advantage of being a constructor in the design and build of the
the celebrity”
construction, before starting to manage the property.
When you manage a hotel, it is not only the system and the way you
run it, but also the building itself and its quality that help you to be suc- What do you think makes a travel experience really special? How do
cessful. We soon discovered the huge advantages of combining both the your properties achieve that for your guests?
constructing and managing businesses at a very early stage and build The demand of the luxury traveler is an individual kind that differs
our strategy from there. Being involved in every step of the creation helps from any other. Basically they want to have a tailor made holiday, an ex-
a lot for a successful operation in the future, in every aspect. perience in itself. We have created villas and residence units of high
caliber for their needs, supported by special services for their own com-
Tell us about Turkey—what are some of the major draws there as a fort. With the nationality mix we have in our hotels, we learned how to
destination? What do you love about the country? What sets it deal with different mentalities and cultures and can serve them accord-
apart from other parts of the Mediterranean? ingly so that luxurious service can be combined with our concept of “all
Turkey deserves to be one of the premier travel destinations of the exclusive – all inclusive” especially, in our resort hotels.
world, with its variety of beautiful landscapes, climate, fascinating cul-
tures and history, world-class properties, wide range of activities and, of
course, the traditional Turkish hospitality. It would be too hard to sim-
ply specify just one or two characteristics of this beautiful country.
92 100 Thousand Club
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