CEO Laurent A. Voivenel Represents HMH at Leading Hospitality Conferences & Forums

As an industry expert and prominent hotelier, Laurent A. Voivenel, CEO of HMH – Hospitality Management Holdings, is on the panel of some of the region’s most significant hospitality conferences and forums. It is not easy for him to do so considering his extremely busy schedule but he believes it is essential to participate.

Be it the ‘Hospitality Middle East Summit’, ‘Hotelier Middle East: Great GM Debate 2014’ or the upcoming ‘The Hotel Show: Vision Conference 2014’ and ‘Hospitality Expansion Middle East Conference’, Laurent has been passionately putting his perspective across. And it is not just his towering personality that gives him an edge. Rather it is his thorough understanding of the business that makes his voice and opinion so compelling.

Laurent stated, “It is a very significant period for our industry and as senior executives and businessmen it becomes our responsibility to exchange ideas and promote change. There are many interesting developments shaping the hospitality and tourism landscape in the region. Projects are increasing in size, complexity, risks and costs. At the same time clients are demanding much more. These changes are creating both challenges and opportunities for all of us. Conferences such as the ones we are participating in are excellent platforms to have open discussions with other experts as well as debate pressing issues. These offer a great setting for sharing new ideas by juxtaposition of existing and future frontiers”.

Equally important for Laurent is to put the HMH view point across while sharing the company’s unique experiences and insights. He said, “We were the first hotel chain in the Middle East to offer alcohol-free safe environment as a group back in 2003. And we are not selective in doing so – neither in terms of brands nor destinations. No matter which part of the globe we operate and under which brand, we would comply with our policy of being alcohol free. So definitely this places us in a very unique position and has over the years helped us to gather an amazing experience both in terms of operations and marketing intelligence. Similarly, the challenges we face are different from other brands”.

Laurent believes the scale of opportunity in the region for hotels especially in the budget segment is unprecedented – an opportune time for the industry to put its act together so all can benefit. He highlighted, “The Middle East is entering a new era of stability with increased connectivity and expansion of existing infrastructure. The region is seeing strong economic and tourism growth. Current estimates suggest that over the next 20 years, upwards of $3 trillion will go directly into leisure and tourism and indirectly into the supporting infrastructure. Through projects announced to date, by 2020 the region will add airport capacity for 300 million extra passengers, build over 200 new hotels, add 100,000 additional rooms, grow visitor numbers to 150 million, and increase the size of its aircraft fleet by over 150% by 2025. With the leisure and business travel sectors both set to double in size, the region’s forecasts suggest annual travel and tourism revenues could increase 89% over the next 10 years”.

For Laurent collaboration is the key to addressing the upcoming challenges. He stressed, “Talking openly about shared problems is the most effective way to develop solutions. The only way to achieve success is if investors, developers, operators, hoteliers and policymakers work together to address the critical issues on the table. Our industry requires collaborative solutions. A huge amount of useful knowledge and experience exists within each group. If companies can learn from the mistakes and successes of others then the whole of the industry can benefit”.

About HMH
Founded in 2003 in Dubai, HMH – Hospitality Management Holdings is a fully-integrated hotel management company that prides itself on being the first hotel chain in the Middle East to offer alcohol-free safe environment. It provides hotel owners and developers a broad spectrum of comprehensive management solutions with five distinct, yet complementary, hotel brands catering to varied market segments from budget to luxury. These include The Ajman Palace Hotel & Resort, Coral Hotels & Resorts, Corp Hotels, EWA Hotel Apartments and ECOS Hotels. Through its dynamic operation and strategic expansion in the Middle East and North Africa, HMH has been successful in unlocking a world of opportunities while creating value for its stakeholders, associates, staff members and customers. Its existing portfolio features 20 properties located in some of the most desirable destinations across the MENA region, as well as a healthy pipeline of hotels under development.

For more information about HMH please visit http://www.hmhhotelgroup.com