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Hospitality Industry Will Focus On Building Brand Britain As Falling Pound Could Benefit Overseas Visitors

Aspire Executive Lounges, Swissport's global airport hospitality brand, has joined the British Institute of Hospitality, the world’s leading and award-winning membership body for hospitality professionals. Aspire Executive Lounges becomes the first business partner from the airport lounge hospitality sector to join the Institute of Hospitality. Aspire Executive Lounges, the fast-growing Swiss brand in the airport hospitality business, has joined the British Institute of Hospitality (IoH), the world’s leading membership body for professionals working and studying in the hospitality leisure and tourism industry. Aspire Executive Lounges is the first business from the airport lounge sector to become a member of IoH. The collaboration will foster an exchange of expertise and insights: IoH will benefit from Aspire's expertise in airport hospitality, while Aspire, by sharing its wealth of experience with IoH members, can extend its professional network to the hotel and catering sectors and hospitality management schools. “Our vision for Aspire Executive Lounges is clear and simple: We want to deliver a guest experience that is similar to what our guests are used to from their preferred hotels, meeting the needs and exceeding the expectations of today’s travelers,” says David Collyer, Global Vice President of Executive Lounges at Swissport International AG. “We strive to deliver an unparalleled experience and set a benchmark that transcends our industry, redefining excellence across the hospitality sector. The Institute of Hospitality is a great network to exchange insights and experiences, and to learn from others in the hospitality sector, which will help us bring our vision to life.” Robert Richardson, CEO of the Institute of Hospitality: “Our aspiration at the Institute of Hospitality has been to develop and grow our membership, the number of countries we operate in, and the number of hospitality sectors represented within our organization. With that in mind, it is a natural partnership for us to welcome Aspire into our family, and to learn from their teams, who serve travelers with passion and dedication. As two organizations with similar values, we look forward to collaborating in promoting high levels of excellence within our profession.” With over 30 years of experience, Aspire Executive Lounges is Europe’s largest brand in the airport lounges sector. In 2023, Swissport welcomed more than five million customers worldwide at over 69 lounges in 20 countries. The airport hospitality brand recently opened new lounges at Toronto City Airport in Canada, and Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in Finland. Aspire Executive Lounges recently created a new lounge concept in partnership with the airline alliance oneworld. The first oneworld branded lounge was launched at Incheon Airport in Seoul, Korea, in December 2023. Aspire Executive Lounges is owned by Swissport International AG, the global leader in aviation services, serving airlines at 286 airports in 44 countries across 6 continents
Written by Amy

The British Hospitality Association (BHA) has released interviews with thought-leaders in the aftermath of Brexit as part of an extensive communications campaign seeking to bring the hospitality and tourism at top of the government’s agenda.

the BHA’s introduced ‘Welcoming the World’ a news and current affairs-style programme produced in partnership with ITN Productions and anchored by national newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky, featuring interviews of thought-leaders who shared their reactions and predictions following the recent vote to leave the EU.

Speaking at the Hospitality and Tourism Summit former Foreign Secretary William Hague, said: “We have strong values in the UK of fairness, of help, of regard for others, we are a welcoming country. It’s very important we retain all of those values (…) My advice would be in the industry “keep focus on those things that have made this industry in Britain so successful. And all of us have to make sure that the world can see that the values of Britain haven’t changed even if our membership of one major organisation has changed.””

http://bit.ly/LordHagueInterview

Dr Andrew Sentance, Senior Economic Advisor at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also shared his view: “It will probably negatively impact growth in the next second half of this year and possibly into next year. (…) But there are some offsets, and one of the offsets is the decline in value of the pound which makes the UK more competitive for travel for overseas, so it’s a swings and roundabout effect but I think people will see some of the impact of the uncertainty.”

http://bit.ly/DrAndrewSentance

In keeping with the goals and values of the BHA, the programme not only champions the UK hospitality and tourism industry but also seeks to bolster its close ties with government to ensure that Britain remains competitive as a tourist destination, renowned for the high standards of its hospitality.

In his interview, Nick Varney, Chairman of the British Hospitality Association and CEO of Merlin Entertainments emphasises the need for BHA to stand together and project the voice of the industry particularly in the absence of a UK Tourism minister to represent a sector employing 4.5 million people.

http://bit.ly/NickVarneyInterview

Ufi Ibrahim, Chief Executive of the BHA, said: “The hospitality and tourism industry is a lynchpin of the UK economy, our fourth largest industry, employing 4.49 million people.

“The BHA champions 44,000 businesses across the UK and we work with the government in order to ensure the achievement of three goals – competitive advantage for our country, sustainable growth of our industry and valuable careers for our people.

“We applaud BHA members for their achievements over the last few years, and it is our ambition to ensure the future success of UK hospitality and tourism. We look forward launching this inspiring news programme with ITN Productions which will showcase our work and inspire future generations.”

Simon Shelley, Head of Industry News, ITN Productions said: “We were delighted to work with the British Hospitality Association for the third year running and 2016 has certainly brought a lot of political and economic uncertainties as well as questions and challenges. We hope that this news-style programme will come to support the BHA’s mission of supporting the industry and shaping a brighter future.”

Welcoming the World’ can be watched in full on the BHA website here. The programme features a series of news-style reports, and sponsored editorial profiles from leading organisations in the sector which explore the broad range of opportunities and challenges brought by regulations, training and new technologies which need to be addressed in order to sustain sector’s growth and competitiveness. Among these profiles are Bidvest Foodservice, Bournemouth University, Concord Hotels, Glasgow Caledonian University, FireEye, Flypay, Greene King, Edinburgh Napier University, Star Quality Hospitality Consultancy, Tourism Northern Ireland, University of Derby, and Visit Britain and Visit England.

About the author

Amy