MEDIA CENTRE - Events

Annual Hotel Conference, Manchester (Oct 2017)

Annual Hotel Conference, Manchester (Oct 2017)

Philip attended the 14^th Annual Hotel Conference in Manchester and his "takeaway nuggets" are listed below:

• Greg spoke of his career at the BBC (where thousands of staff emails expressed their sorrow at seeing him go), his chairmanship of the English Football Association (during which he witnessed the demise of Sepp Blatter as head of FIFA) and his new life as a multiple hotel owner (via Vine Hotels).
• David of Principal Hotels spoke of the importance of 'stickiness', both in terms of staff retention (an increasingly important issue after Brexit) and of ensuring your customers are repeat guests.
• Trevor, the economist, portrayed a positive global picture, with plenty of positive signs for economic growth around the globe over the next few years. For the UK, he was more circumspect. Inflation should fall in 2018 as the figures correct themselves following the drop in sterling following the Brexit Referendum. However, spiralling levels of debt could be a brake on future GDP growth and a ticking time bomb if interest rates should rise quickly.
• David's state of the hotel nation address (delivered in a fun newspaper format) identified Edinburgh as the star performer of 2017 in terms of RevPAR (+17% over the same period in 2016) and one to watch with caution regarding new supply (+15% in the next few years).
• Katherine posed the questions to a panel of innovators from beneath a very fetching, but distinctly old fashioned, handmade, tinfoil helmet, an interesting proxy for appropriate high-tech protection against high-tech threats.