Big interview Adapt to expand
For hotels across the globe, the arrival of vaccine programmes has sparked welcome signs of recovery. While some have been happy to see guests return and finances reboot, others have continued to expand at a frenetic pace even as the pandemic remains far from over. Will Moffitt speaks to Elie Younes, executive vice-president and global chief development officer at Radisson Hotel Group, about proactive leadership, how the company has fared over an immensely challenging year and a half, the areas it is targeting for long-term growth, and the threat new Covid variants pose to hospitality.
lie Younes talks about overcoming obstacles like a priest talking about original sin. The pandemic, he says, was a “moment of adversity” and “adversity always has two facets: there’s the devil, and there’s the angel”.
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Of course, Radisson Hotel Groups’ global chief development officer is not here to lecture anyone on dogma. Instead, he is talking about how perception shapes action, how the way we see things influences our behaviour. As the pandemic rumbles on, splitting things into Manichean terms feels somewhat logical. On the one hand it’s easy to fret. After vaccination campaigns helped loosen social boundaries, hotels around the world enjoyed a welcome burst of renewed activity.
The return of the Omicron variant, however, looks to pose a significant threat to vast portions of the globe, just as many hotels and businesses were beginning to get their mojo back. Quite how deadly this strain of the Sars-Cov2 virus might be, and what
restrictions might be required, is still – at the time of writing – largely unknown. There is a more optimistic interpretation of events, however. While national infrastructures around vaccinations and test and tracing systems might differ across countries, there is no denying that most nations are better at containing the virus than they were in March 2020. The same can be said of hotels, where a raft of safety protocols and more advanced testing measures are in place to stem unwanted infections. Moreover, while estimates suggest that RevPAR will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023, staycation and working trends have revitalised economic downturns. For Younes, it is all a matter of perspective. “There will be a mix of news cycles, some good, some not great in the next 12 to 24 months, but I choose to believe that the good will always prevail over the bad,” he says. “We have maintained the same view that we have had for the last six to 12 months. We are
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Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
Radisson Hotel Group
Radisson Hotel Group
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