A 20-year veteran of the leisure and travel industry, Vincent was previously chief executive of Opodo, the online travel agency. He also spent 13 years at the Thomas Cook Group, latterly as chief operating officer and managing director of tour operating and retail distribution. Vincent has extensive international experience, having held a number of pan-European roles and worked in North America and Japan. He spent the early part of his career in international banking with HSBC. He held the role of president of UK and Ireland division at Hilton before a global restructure saw him take on his current European-wide role. More recently his position was extended to the Middle-East and Africa areas.
Hilton Worldwide has more than 230 properties across six brands in 31 countries across Europe – with more than 120 in the pipeline, demonstrating great presence and future growth opportunity. In established markets such as the UK, Germany, France and Italy we have also been able to establish our portfolio in secondary and tertiary locations, operating hotels in a wider range of locations and as part of our multi-brand proposition. Our goal moving forward is to bring a similarly extensive offering to emerging and key development markets such as Turkey, Poland and Russia where we are experiencing strong growth and expect this to continue in the coming years. Is the strong interest of Hilton Worldwide for Eastern European countries still justified? We believe there is enormous potential for tourism to flourish in Eastern Europe in the coming years, a strategic viewpoint that is reflected by our burgeoning pipeline in this region. Tourists are becoming increasingly aware of the rich culture and heritage these countries possess and Eastern Europeans are travelling more than they’ve ever done before. Looking at new hotel growth specifically, our largest European pipelines exist in Russia and Turkey, where our mid-priced brands Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton by Hilton have been particularly popular in secondary and tertiary cities. The likes of Poland and Romania are also exciting destinations where our portfolio of brands are being actively sought to provide greater choice to guests. To take Russia as an example, we recently commissioned a report into the state of its tourism industry which found inbound tourism is set to grow by 5% from 2011-2016. This is expected to be supported through the hosting of global events such as the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2018 Football World Cup, which will further showcase the country as an attractive destination. Where would you like to re-enforce the presence of the group? Do you have a “golden number” objective, such as 300 hotels or 60 000 rooms by the year 2015? We have the strongest European pipeline in the industry, with more than 120 hotels due to open in 20 European countries – delivering that plan remains our key focus. Moving forward our objective for Europe is to continue looking for opportunities to expand our brands and will do so on a case by case basis within the context of our strategic growth plan in key markets. Hilton Worldwide in Europe is mostly known through its major brand: Hilton. What about the other brands? Are you satisfied with the recent developments of Garden Inn, DoubleTree, Hampton Inn and Waldorf-Astoria? We are very much focused on developing the footprint of all our brands in Europe. In the focused service arena both Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton by Hilton now have over 50 properties either trading or in the pipeline, a number we are constantly looking to expand. In addition, DoubleTree by Hilton continues to gain momentum as an attractive conversion proposition for owners and developers. The last two years have seen us open almost 20 hotels under this upscale brand with more than 20 further deals in the pipeline. This year has also seen unprecedented growth for our luxury portfolio with three outstanding new hotels opening this year. The Caledonian, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Edinburgh is now welcoming guests following a lavish £24million upgrade whilst the highly anticipated opening of Conrad Algarve in Portugal took place last month. They will be joined in December by the stunning Waldorf Astoria Berlin which will extend our luxury offering into the German market. In terms of new developments would you say that the example of “hotel combo” in Frankfurt, with Hilton and Garden Inn next to each other, is a direction that you would like to explore? This is certainly a trend, one which we are at the forefront of. In hospitality, just like any industry, the ability for brands to offer their consumers’ choice is paramount to delivering success in this day and age. We believe dual branded properties are an exciting method by which we can achieve this. Further to the outstanding success of our Frankfurt Airport properties we have had several recent high profile dual-branded openings. This August, we opened our first dual branded property in the UK, a Hilton & Hampton by Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton upon Trent - home of the Football Association’s new multimillion pound National Football Centre. The same two brands have been combined in Bursa, Turkey with the property acting as a Convention Centre & Spa resort. We are excited about the prospect of building further dual-branded properties in locations which attract varying demographic of guests who may have o differing budgets available but who recognise and trust the quality of our brands. We look forward to more news on dual-branded developments in the very near future. Is there a future for Conrad Hotels & Resorts in Europe, with only three hotels left in operation when the contract in Brussels will be terminated? There is very much a future for the Conrad Hotels & Resorts brand in Europe, as it does globally. The brand has a strong presence in Asia Pacific and with the recent openings such as Conrad New York, is establishing a stronger presence in key global locations. There are now more than 20 hotels worldwide and some exciting new ones coming soon, including in my newly expanded region Conrad Dubai and Conrad Pezula Resort and Spa in South Africa. Our Europe, we’re witnessing great excitement around the opening of Conrad Algarve. Hosting this year’s World Travel Awards allowed the hotel to showcase its magnificent design concept to the industry first hand, and having been crowned Europe’s Leading New Resort on the night I think it is fair to say they were suitably impressed. I look forward to watching the resort establish itself as a favorite amongst visitors to the Algarve in the coming years. In addition our properties in Istanbul and Dublin go from strength to strength with the former currently undergoing a full scale renovation and the latter also tasting success, being named Ireland’s Leading Business Hotel. Conrad Dublin has also embarked on a high profile six-figure sponsorship of current European Rugby champions, Leinster. A deal that will further boost the brand’s credentials in Ireland and across the continent. As far as Africa and the Middle-East are concerned, how strong is the potential in these areas? Several hotel groups seem to be very active in the Sub-Saharan part of Africa. Is this your experience? Having recently merged Europe, Middle East & Africa together in to one joint Hilton Worldwide EMEA region I am looking forward to continuing to build our portfolio further afield. We currently operate more than 50 hotels in Middle East & Africa and have an impressive pipeline which is set to double that number in the coming years. In Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, we announced the signing of the DoubleTree by Hilton brand in Cape Town, South Africa last month which will become our fifth hotel in the country. Earlier this year, we unveiled signing of Conrad Pezula, our first upscale and luxury brand in South Africa as well as the introduction of DoubleTree by Hilton in Seychelles with DoubleTree by Hilton Allamanda. Do you find it tougher and tougher to maintain steady and trustful relations with hotel owners, who may have different strategies or expectations when signing the management contract in the first place? No we have not found this to be the case. The hotel business is a long term investment by both the brand and the owner and we have some extremely strong partnerships across Europe – with many owners having several hotels with Hilton Worldwide, both operating and in the pipeline. We operate in a dynamic environment where strategies and expectations can change because of external factors or any number of reasons, what’s important is that with our owners we are able to adapt and meet those challenges. Are you also involved in the implementation of new catering concepts by Hilton in your properties? Providing excellent standards in Food & Beverage is crucial to our success as a business and our history of innovation in this field is recognized across the industry. We have recently appointed an additional three Michelin starred chefs to run restaurants at Hilton Worldwide properties, which serve to emphasize the standards we aspire to. Chris and Jeff Galvin will be extending their relationship with us at The Caledonian, a Waldorf Astoria whilst Conrad Algarve and Waldorf Astoria Berlin will feature concepts from Heinz Beck and Pierre Gagnaire respectively. Our Food & Beverage team also works to develop innovative restaurant concepts which we look to introduce across a range of our properties. At Hilton Amsterdam, we’ve been piloting Roberto’s - an Italian fine dining concept featuring regional expressions of classic dishes. Having been extremely well received by our guests in Amsterdam we will now be supporting a roll out of this concept to selected hotels across our global portfolio. We also have the ability to tailor concepts designed for specific markets where we feel our guests are looking for a particular style of culinary experience. In the UK for example, our Atelier restaurant concept has already been introduced to a number of hotels, offering the taste of an authentic French bistro in an intimate yet informal setting. The year 2011 was surprisingly a good year for the hotel industry in Europe, and even with a global economic recession in many countries in Europe, the performances in 2012 should be even better. How do you explain that “paradox”, if this is one? No industry has remained completely immune to the effects of the current economic climate, and I don’t think hospitality has been any different in that respect. The performance of the hospitality industry is generally a good general economic barometer and while trading conditions have undoubtedly been challenging, particularly in the MICE sector, and we are seeing some encouraging trends. What we have seen at Hilton Worldwide is that guests have remained loyal to our brands and continue to choose to stay with us. Travelers may be looking to make sacrifices when looking for entertainment or shopping whilst on trips but are not so willing to compromise on the standard of their hotel experience. Our guests and clients continue to seek our brands out, as they trust them to deliver quality service and good value for money. Our geographical scope also helps make us less susceptible to fluctuations in the economy. Whilst the climate has been more challenging in some European markets, we are fortunate to have an extended portfolio of hotels in London and UK which received a real boost from this summer’s Olympic Games. This is complemented by our presence in markets such as Turkey and Russia where tourism and expenditure continues to grow. Despite the well documented economic challenges facing the region, the picture in Western Europe remains upbeat. The markets remain enduring popular with tourists, particularly in the upscale and luxury sector with hotels such as Trianon Palace Versailles, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel in France and Hilton Molino Stucky Venice in Italy performing particularly well. Would you say that you are optimistic for next year and the years to come or that the good days are over and the future is much tougher than expected? The fundamentals of our business remain strong and the industry has performed well, given the economic uncertainty. We are seeing the continuation of some encouraging trends in recent months and I’m confident that we will maintain this positive momentum into 2013. At Hilton Worldwide we will be pressing ahead with our aggressive expansion plans next year which will see us breaking into new markets such as Ukraine and Montenegro as well as introducing new brands into markets where Hilton Worldwide already enjoys a presence.
