Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 2nd Quarter 2016 | Page 3

PRESIDENT’S LETTER Dear Hoteliers, Spring is an exciting time for the ILHA as we prepare for our first European Luxury Hospitality Summit which will be held in Athens, May 19 – 20th at the Athens Ledra Hotel. Greece has always been a popular destination for the global, affluent traveler with both its natural and man-made treasures. I would like to extend a special thanks to our hosts Eric and Sybil Hofmann of the Alpine Center, Swiss Business School for Hotel & Tourism Management; they have worked round-the-clock to ensure the event’s success, along with the team at the Athens Ledra Hotel. This spring we will also launch the first in our series of ILHA Luxury Hospitality Certifications. These online courses were designed with leading luxury hospitality educators and hoteliers to provide the industry with an easy-to-use tool to train their team or onboard new staff. The first course, Delivering Service Excellence® was co-produced by Dr. Lily Lin who designed many of the courses at the famous Hague Hotel School in the Netherlands. It presents the most up-to-date information about the service industry, including successful employer case studies, industry best practices, product and service innovations, and the direction of the industry in the years to come. The course will also be made available to hotels as a training tool as part of ILHA’s new Hotel Membership category that will be launching this summer. I look forward to meeting many of you in Athens. Sincerely, Barak Hirschowitz, President, International Luxury Hotel Association ILHA 3