GOSTELOW REPORT

摘要

Swissotel Hotels & Resorts Managing Director Meinhard Huck is delighted with his brand's expansion to such key global destinations as the Estonia capital, Tallin, but he badly needs more presence in the United States, where Swissotel Chicago is currently the only property. Associated Ventures, Los Angeles, is doing a 300-room resort along Napa Valley's Silverado Trail in California. Led by co-directors Michael Mayer and Melanie Pennell-Mayer, the latter is certainly looking far afield. Kempinski Hotels, Geneva, has confirmed that Pennell-Mayer is exploring potential projects with its brand in Islamabad, Nassau, Tel Aviv, Vienna and the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Kempinski is, indeed, expanding so fast that some wonder when it will exceed the 111-property cap imposed by its Chairman and CEO Reto Wittwer (since he is determined that the Kempinski portfolio will not be larger than the age of the company founded in 1897. Could this mean that in the future some properties may leave the brand?). Recent additions include management of some of Dubai World Africa's purchases in Africa, which include a 150-key property to be built at Kigali Golf Course and Club and, also in Rwanda, game lodges in the proximity of gorilla habitats. In the Grande Comore islands, north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, Kempinski will operate the Galawa Beach that Dubai World Africa has purchased.