(AOF) – Accor today announced the appointment of Omer Acar as Chief Executive Officer of Raffles & Orient Express, effective March 1, 2023. A leading luxury hotel specialist, Omer Acar will help the two brands establish their reputation throughout the world and to pursue their international development.
Based in New York, he will report directly to Sébastien Bazin within the Luxury & Lifestyle Executive Committee and will work closely with the general managers of the other brands in this division. He will also be responsible for representing Accor in the North American market.
A graduate of the Institut hôtelier de Montreux (Switzerland), Hawaii Pacific University and Cornell University (United States), Omer Acar was since 2014 General Manager Europe and Americas of the Katara Hospitality group, in charge of 18 establishments. , including the Plaza (New York), the Peninsula (Paris), the Carlton (Cannes), the Excelsior (Rome), or the Grosvenor House and the Savoy (London).
He began his career at Four Seasons, in the United States and in Egypt, before joining Harrods in the United Kingdom in 2005 as Group Food & Beverage Director, then being appointed General Manager of the Ritz in Paris. in 2006, and to perform the same function at the Royal Monceau Raffles from 2011.
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Key points
– World’s leading hotel operator, created in 1967, with more than 40% of the market (excluding France, 1/3 of the market), leader in Asia-Pacific, Middle East-Africa and Latin America;
– Hotel portfolio of 5,300 hotels, i.e. 778,000 rooms in 100 countries, from luxury for 26% of revenues under the brands Fairmont, Pullman, Raffles, Sofitel, etc. to mid-range (34%) and economy Adagio, Ibis, Mercure , Novotel…;
– Activity of €2.2 billion balanced worldwide and divided into two main divisions, HotelServices for hotels owned under franchise or by management (72%) and HotelAssets for those owned as well as diversification in concierge services, rental of luxury residences or digital services for hoteliers, etc.;
– Economic model based on the reduction of capital requirements by “asset light” – sale of buildings and management control, by building loyalty and optimizing the model;
– Capital characterized by the presence of the Chinese hotel operators Jin Jiang and Huazhu (13% and 6.2% each), the Qatari fund QiA (11.3%) and the English Kingdom Hotels (9.21%), the founders retaining 1.43% of the capital, with a 12-member board of directors chaired by managing director Sébastien Bazin;
– Controlled financial structure with €2.5 billion in cash compared to €2 billion in net debt at the end of June.
Challenges
– Simplification of the organization into two divisions: “Economy, Midscale & Premium Division”, hotel division bringing together the brands Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Swissôtel, Mövenpick and Pullman / “Luxury & Lifestyle Division”, division bringing together the luxury hotel brands / and Ennismore, the Group’s Lifestyle entity;
– RESET strategy for recurring cost savings -€200m per year;
– Innovation strategy in the service of augmented hospitality ALL-Accor Live Limitless with a single platform concentrating the group’s offers, exploiting personal and commercial data to build customer loyalty;
– “Planet 21” environmental strategy of net zero carbon by 2050 for all hotels under the Accor brand: 2025 stage plan: reduction of 25.2% of internal gas emissions and 15% of scope 3 emissions, elimination of single-use plastics, audit of 1/3 of suppliers, launch of the 1
er
“green loan”, a strategy for integrating hotels into their local fabric in order to reduce the negative impact of the decline in business travel;
– Benefits of the strategic partnership with the Chinese Huazhu Hotels Group, aimed at strengthening the Ibis, Mercure and Novotel brands in China, Taiwan and Mongolia;
– Continued balance sheet reduction by sale of the head office in Paris, for €465 million;
– Acceleration of diversification in “lifestyle”, notably with Ennismore, held at 62.2%.
Challenges
– Confirmation of the rise in RevPar (indicator of hotel activity) which exceeded on the 2
n/a
semester its level of 2019;
– Strong exposure to Europe, which contributes nearly 40% of operating profit, and expectation that China and South-East Asia will catch up;
– Faced with inflation, effectiveness of the RESET plan for recurring cost savings -€200 million per year, reinforced in the fall by an energy savings plan in hotels;
– After a doubling of turnover and a return to profitability, operating and net, on 1
er
semester, 2022 objectives, raised, of a 3.5% growth of the network and a more than doubling of the gross operating surplus between 610 and 640 M€.
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World tourism still on the rise
Over the first nine months of 2022, 700 million tourists traveled internationally, more than double (+133%) the figure recorded for the same period in 2021. This figure reached 63% of 2019 levels , which should allow the sector to reach 65% of its pre-pandemic levels in 2022. This result is due to a strong level of demand and the gradual lifting of restrictions in a large number of countries. Europe is significantly supporting this rebound with the arrival of 477 million people between January and September 2022 (68% of the global total), reaching 81% of the pre-covid level. Tourism there is driven by strong intra-regional demand and travel from the United States. Some destinations recorded notable increases in receipts, including Serbia, Romania, Turkey, Latvia, Portugal, Pakistan, Mexico, Morocco and France.