
From now until April 5th, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. headquarters will be moved from Stamford in the US to Dubai in the UAE. This move will help the company reach key markets.
During the HQ relocation, Starwood President and CEO Frits van Paasschen and the other top executives will conduct day-to-day business from Dubai. In addition, more than 200 Starwood executives and GMs from the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America will travel to Dubai for meetings over the course of the HQ relocation.According to van Paasschen, it is no longer feasible to operate a global corporation from the old HQ in Connecticut, considering that 80 percent of Starwood’s pipeline comes from emerging markets. "Dubai epitomizes this changing face of travel," he says, and the current pattern changes represent an opportunity to capitalize on new markets that Starwood cannot miss.This relocation to UAE is designed to engender a global culture and gain perspectives on different approaches to hospitality. It follows, and is intended to replicate, an earlier relocation to China in June 2011 that proved beneficial. Although from strategic location of Dubai, executives can also more easily travel to Mumbai, Addis Ababa, Jeddah, Dushanbe, Kuwait, etc.
