Future Hospitality Summit Podcast

In this episode of the Future Hospitality Summit Podcast, Guy Hutchinson, President & CEO, Rotana, in conversation with Jonathan Worsley, Chairman & CEO, The Bench, shares his reasons for participating in FHS and his experience being on the CEOs panel at the Saudi edition of the summit. Guy elaborates what sustainability means for the hospitality industry at this stage and sheds light on what Rota...

Haitham Mattar, Managing Director IMEA, IHG Hotels & Resorts and Special Advisor, UNWTO in conversation with Jonathan Worsley, Chairman & CEO, The Bench, talks about the importance of Future Hospitality Summit as an event and his key takeaways from a panel talk he participated in at the Saudi edition of the summit. He also talks about how important it is to engage the younger generation in the hos...

In this podcast with Amir Swilam, Sales & Business Development Director at CPC Holding, we dive into what CPC is, how sustainable and environment-friendly its practices are, and how it has contributed to the tourism and hospitality industry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Amir talks about all the factors that make CPC outshine its competitors and help set its mark in the hotel industry. Constructi...

Here's a quick teaser to what the discussion on high-end, fine-dining restaurants will look like at the Future Hospitality Summit, 2022. We have Stefan Breg, MD Keane Consult & KSA in conversation with Abdullah Al Muslemani, CEO Crown & Co. and Jana Bader, General Manager, KSA, the bench for this podcast where they discuss the recent developments in high-end dining in Saudi Arabia, and what opport...

In this podcast with Guy Hutchinson, President & CEO Rotana, we explore how Rotana was able to pull itself back from the setback COVID put the hospitality industry in, and how it outperformed itself from pre-pandemic days in such a less time. Guy also discusses Rotana's plans for expansion in the Saudi market, and his panel discussion at the upcoming Future Hospitality Summit in Riyadh this May. G...

In this podcast with Amine E. Moukarzel, President Louvre Hotels Group/Golden Tulip MENA & Flamingo Hospitality Management we discuss the history of Golden Tulip Brand in the MENA region, challenges of mid-market segment and its evolvement in the next 10 years, and strengthening owner-operator relationship. A recognized stalwart of the Middle East hospitality industry, Amine Moukarzel was the driv...

AHIC Talks met with Youssef Chraibi, Managing Director of Magespro Africa, a project management and engineering firm focused into the African market to find out how the past 24 months have impacted their organisation and the markets they work in. We discussed what opportunities there are for the market, the geographies they are focused on for new business opportunities and how clients can minimise...

Michael Levie and David Keen are co-founders of Kube Ventures, a new accelerator platform designed to transform the hospitality industry. Michael and David spoke with Jonathan Worsley about their mission for this platform on this episode AHIC Talks. The founders also spoke about what inspired them to develop the platform and the different verticals created to solved different problems through vari...

In this episode, Matthew Weihs talks with Hon. Minister Najib Balala to see how tourism in Kenya is handling the pandemic and what can be done for future investment opportunities. The minister spoke about how infrastructure plays a big role during times of crisis as it enhances intra-Africa travel which offers plenty of opportunity for growth. Having recently confirmed his participation, Minister...

In this week's episode of AHIC Talks, Jonathan Worsley had a chat with Carlos Khneisser, who is Hilton's Vice President of Development for the Middle East and Africa region. They discussed how the hotel chain has been adapting to enormous changes by focusing on their people and the strength of their relationships with owners. Despite these challenges, they've made significant strides over the past...

In this episode of AHIC talks, Jonathan Worsley spoke with Makram El Zyr, a second-generation hotelier whose father Selim El Zyr was one of the founding partners of Rotana. As the brand's Corporate VP of Development, Makram now leads the brand's ambitious expansion plans, focused on building their relationships with owners across every new project they move into.

In the latest episode of AHIC Talks, Fuad Sajdi shares his vision for Toggle Hospitality: to be your go-to digital marketplace for hotel FF&E procurement. This is a revolutionary idea that will save hotels manhours and time on sourcing supplies by providing them with one easy platform from which they can find everything their property needs in just seconds! Fuad also discussed with Jonathan Worsle...

In this episode, Jennifer Pettinger-Haines handed the reins over to Muhammad Ali Syed, Founder & CEO of Mingora Consult. He was in conversation with Prince Alwaleed Bin Nassir who is President of Qoot, about their recent collaboration on a joint report focusing on Saudi CEOs and COVID-19 sentiments in the Saudi restaurant industry. COVID-19 has hit the Saudi restaurant business hard, significantly...

In this week's episode of AHIC Talks, Mathew Weihs spoke to Andrew McLachlan, who joined Hilton last year as the brand's Managing Director of Development for the Sub-Saharan African region. Andrew shared a preview of the development strategy for the African continent with some of the brand's key brands such as Hilton Garden Inn, LXR, Waldorf Astoria and many more. He also talked about how the bran...

In this week's episode of AHIC Talks, Jonathan Worsley spoke with Jalil Mekouar, Founder & CEO of inHovate Solutions about the data challenges in hospitality and how his company uses data science, machine learning and A.I to help solve them. As properties across the globe look to optimise and stay lean, finding solutions like inHovate have become paramount, as it provides 360° degree optimization...

In this episode of AHIC Talks, Matthew Weihs spoke with Amos Wekesa, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Great Lakes Safaris about the challenges African owners have faced over the past 18 months. Great Lakes Safaris, a brand synonymous with luxury leisure travel in East African destinations, has been severely impacted by the lack of international tourism. Amos shared how he dealt with the situ...

In this episode, Ian Ohan & Food Sheikh joined us to announce the Rise Up challenge, a competition searching for food entrepreneurs in the UAE, with the finals taking place live and in-person at AHIC in September. Their conversation with Jennifer Pettinger-Haines touched on why they put such a competition together and what kind of contestant would make the cut. Interested in participating or know...

James Asquith has set the Guinness World Record for being the youngest person to travel to all 196 countries in the world by the age of 25. In this episode of AHIC Talks, he speaks with Jonathan Worsley about how he came across the idea for Holiday Swap and what his future plans are. Holiday Swap is an award-winning home exchange platform. It has been designed for travellers to securely swap and h...

In this episode of AHIC Talks, Matthew Weihs chats with Michael Grove, COO of Hotstats on the findings of the recently published Profit Matters Review in 2020. Obviously, on the back of a very difficult year for the industry, the two looked at what the report covered and some of the key operational areas hoteliers could look at going forward. A few other key themes discussed were the return of eve...

In this episode of AHIC Talks, Jonathan Worsley, Chairman and Founder of Bench, caught up with Mohamed Awadalla, CEO of Time Hotels & Resorts at the Arabian Travel Market held live and in-person in Dubai. The two spoke about how Time Hotels & Resorts had fared during the pandemic and what Mohamed's development plans are for the future.

In this episode of AHIC Talks, Jennifer Pettinger-Haines, Managing Director of Bench, speaks with Andrew Morrow. Director of Operations for the Firmament. The conversations touch on Andrew's impressions of Australia's restaurant scene and the differences he sees in comparison to Dubai. Andrew also shares exciting news about the Firmament's expansion plans for the overseas market.

On the eve of publishing the 13th Annual Hotel Chain Development Pipelines in Africa , Trevor Ward, Managing Director at W Hospitality Group spoke with Matthew Weihs, Managing Director at bench about the report findings. They discussed what the 2020 hotel development numbers looked like for Africa and what this implied for the industry. They also dived into the key operators across the continent a...

In this Bench Impact podcast we spoke to Sophie Le Ray, CEO of Eve List, Founder of Women in Leadership summit and the most recent Bench board member.  We talked about the Women in Leadership summit and the founding of Eve List, the purpose of her work to create more gender parity through transparency and a forum that addresses economic benefits.   We talked about her view of gender equality in to...

In this Bench Impact podcast Matthew Weihs spoke to David Zarzecki, Senior Vice President of Global Brands for Kindred. We explored the charitable work they provide through the retail sector and talked about the recent NHS campaign they did to help support key workers in the UK.  Focusing more on the hospitality industry now in helping them use travel and hospitality as a way customers can engage...

As Bench prepares to host our third Hospitality Tomorrow digital conference focused on leadership and motivation we spoke to Michael Levie the COO of citizenM about his thoughts on innovation and creativity being used within the hospitality industry and how to instil it within an organisation.  A brand synonymous with being a trend setter for many in the industry he speakers of how it allows an or...