Top leaders line up for Ultratravel Forum
Leaders of some of the most prestigious and innovative companies in luxury travel are to take to the stage at the Ultratravel Forum in partnership with ttgluxury.
TTG Media is partnering with Ultratravel, the luxury lifestyle brand that includes the quarterly magazine of The Daily Telegraph, several international editions and the reader-voted ULTRAs awards, to create a day of luxury on May 23 that will include the Presidents Panel.
Taking place at The Savoy, the panel at the Forum will include Shelley Cline, long-serving president of TCS World Travel, the fast-growing private jet tour operator and co-creator of Four Seasons Private Jet Experience; and Edie Rodriguez, president and chief executive of Crystal Cruises, which has mapped out unprecedented expansion in the ultra-luxury cruise sector.
Also joining them will be Frank Marrenbach, the chief executive of fast-growing Oetker Collection, which includes feted hotels such as Fregate Island in the Seychelles, The Lanesborough in London and Le Bristol Paris. He is also managing director of the group’s Brenners Hotel & Spa, which includes standalone Villa Stephanie, a spa-focused part of the hotel with 15 rooms that “kill the internet”: guests can flip a silver switch next to the beds which will activate a copper grid in the walls to block all wireless internet signals.
“What these people don’t know between them about what is happening in luxury travel probably isn’t worth knowing"
April Hutchinson, editor, ttgluxury
The panel will also include head of brand at Elegant Resorts, Sally Booth, who has been a product and marketing expert in luxury travel since 2002 and now leads a 15-strong in-house marketing team at Elegant. Flying in from Dubai, Robert Swade, group chief operating officer of Jumeirah Group, will complete the panel, which will be chaired by Chris Hartley, chief executive of Global Hotel Alliance and another expert in luxury travel.
“What these people don’t know between them about what is happening in luxury travel probably isn’t worth knowing,” said April Hutchinson, editor of ttgluxury.
She will chair a panel discussion on the future of luxury hotel design with Will Meyer and Gray Davis, partners in a successful New York-based interior design company.
Their recent work includes W Hotel Lakeshore in Chicago, The Paramount in New York and the first in a new group of hotels – 1 Hotel South Beach Miami, as well as a range of restaurants. Joining them will be Anchalika Kijkanakorn, a pioneer of boutique hotels in Thailand who is also expanding into Laos with the opening of The President by Akaryn in Vientiane later this year, and Martin Hulbert, designer of Coworth Park and The Grove hotels.
The day also starts with Luxpo, ttgluxury’s one-to-one meetings event that connects top luxury travel sellers with suppliers of luxury product, while the UK version of the ULTRAs will also take place on May 23, with a dinner event in the evening, celebrating the winners of the awards.
“With the one-to-one nature of Luxpo, the thought-leadership of the Forum and the recognition of the ULTRAs, we are connecting the industry in unique ways that few other events do in the UK,” said Hutchinson. “There is no other date like this in the calendar.”
To attend the event on May 23, tickets for delegates cost £195 (+VAT). Full details of the event and other sessions are also available.
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