Big interview Rising to the top As a veteran of the hospitality industry, Sir Rocco Forte has made waves with his


renowned Rocco Forte Hotel offering and service to the tourism industry. Phoebe Galbraith speaks to Sir Rocco, chairman of Rocco Forte Hotel, to fi nd out how his time in the industry has shaped him as a hotelier, how his hotel has set the standard when it comes to luxury and service, as well as his aims for future development and expansion.


ir Rocco Forte has been in the hotel industry for more than half a century and is still as enthusiastic and ambitious as ever. It is no surprise then, that the hotelier is a well-recognised veteran of the industry receiving a knighthood in 1994 for his services to the UK tourism industry and the highest Italian accolade, the Gran Croce dell-Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, for his entrepreneurial accomplishments. Forte also spent time as president of the British Hospitality Association and member of the World Travel and Tourism Council. When it comes to his role as a hotelier, Forte puts that


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down to first-hand experience. “Neither of those two organisations have shaped my view of the industry but I was shaped as a hotelier by working in this industry and the experience you gain by rising through it,” he explains. Forte joined the industry in 1969, working for the Forte Group, originally Trusthouse Forte, before succeeding his father Lord Charles Forte as CEO in 1983. Jump forward to the present, Forte is chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels, which he founded in 1996, with hotels across Europe in key destinations such as London, Edinburgh, Brussels, Florence, Rome, Puglia, Sicily, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin and St Petersburg.


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Rocco Forte


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