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| Hospitality Today | Feb/Mar 14
L-R: Andrew Stembridge, MI Chairman;
Stuart Bowery, Hotelier of the Year;
and Harry Murray MBE, Lucknam Park
Mas
Innho
2014 G
Mana
Confe
‘The Keys to Growth’ . . . .
The Master Innholders’ 21st General Managers’ conference was held
on 20th and 21st January at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel.
HT editor David Weston reports:
Day One
Andrew Stembridge, (below) Master
Innholders Chairman (and GM of Chewton
Glen), welcomed a “record” number of
delegates - some 460 - and said that
“following reports of the highest-ever
RevPAR in London in December”, hoteliers
looked forward to 2014.
“This year’s conference will have a strong
emphasis on providing you with the Keys to
Growth. The programme
has been designed to
provide you, not only
with answers on how
to meet the current
challenges, but also
with the tools to help
you achieve your goals.
The conference remains
the only one of its type,
inspired and delivered
by general managers
for general managers.
“With the demand to attend the conference
continuing to grow, we are fortunate to
have been offered an exciting new venue
here at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge,
where Master Innholder, Greg Hegarty,
and the GM, Daniel Pedreschi, assure us
of a memorable experience.”
Ufi Ibrahim, CEO of the British
Hospitality Association (BHA), then
took the stage to chair Day One. She
reminded us that hospitality is now
the fourth largest industry in the UK,
employing 2.68 million people and
providing £39.6 billion tax revenue to
the Treasury and £52.7 billion benefit
to the UK economy.
Hospitality is outpacing the growth in
the economy generally, and generated
153,000 new jobs between 2010 and 2012
- some 27.7% of all new jobs created in
the UK over the period. Ibrahim said that
300,000 new jobs are possible by 2020 if
government and industry work together
to create the right framework for growth.