GLOBAL LEADERS: Larry Cuculic

IN 2022, THERE is hope on the horizon for travel and tourism recovery. That being said, with the emergence of the Omicron variant, we know the future is difficult to predict. While our recovery has been uneven across the globe due to regional variations in vaccine rollout and evolving government restrictions, some regions such as North America are already experiencing a return to 2019 travel levels. Other regions such as Europe, the MiddleEast and Asia are also experiencing encouraging progress. We remain hopeful that 2022 will bring even more positive news for the re-emergence of tourism, including both leisure and business travel.

Despite the hardships endured throughout the pandemic, BWH Hotel Group is fortunate to be in the strongest financial position in the company’s history. We continue to celebrate tremendous successes, including industry-leading guest and hotelier satisfaction and record-breaking RevPAR growth. We will continue building on our many successes by increasing brand revenue delivery to our hotels, ensuring we are well capitalised, increasing scale in a responsible manner, and continuing to provide superior care to our guests.

We have learned during the pandemic that travel is a fundamental part of our collective experience. As a result, we are witnessing a resurgence of leisure travellers hitting the road and rediscovering the power of travel. I believe that it is our responsibility – the entire hospitality industry – to provide guests with safe travel experiences focused on their wellbeing that will rebuild consumer confidence. But first, we must overcome two significant challenges that are impacting our industry: the labour shortage and supply and shipping challenges.

Regarding the labour challenge, the industry's reputation was damaged by the pandemic as we lost a significant number of jobs. Now we are competing with a broad range of employers, not just within our industry when recruiting staff. Nonetheless, I believe that people who have a caring spirit will return to hospitality because it aligns with their talents and preferences – taking care of guests.

To support our hoteliers, we are providing human resources training and recruiting tools and best practices to improve retention and recruiting. Compensation and benefits are important, but just as important is retention through recognising the changing needs of the workforce that resulted from the pandemic, for example being as efficient as possible and flexible scheduling.

From a supply perspective, we are engaging in regular and timely communication with our hoteliers to ensure they are well-informed when it comes to purchasing availability and shipping times. We are continuing to evolve our supply team with new offerings to streamline the process for our hoteliers, providing improved access to goods and eliminating the burden associated with operating with reduced staff.

As we look to 2022, we remain committed to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our hoteliers and continuing to provide industry leading support. As our industry faces lingering challenges from the pandemic, I am encouraged by how far we have come and believe our future together is ours to make. n

Number of hotels and rooms (Globally): 4,005 hotels and 356,607 rooms

Year first hotel opened (Globally): 1946

Year first hotel opened (Asia Pacific): 1993

Year first hotel opened (Australasia): 1975

Brands in the organisation: 18

Head office locations: Phoenix, Bangkok, Sydney