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The Travel Career Connexxions Opportunities Newsletter
11/16/04 The only weekly newsletter detailing essential trends, news and top executive moves in travel. Opportunities is a free newsletter that provides you with the vision to "see" travel industry opportunities in the making. Whether you are in sales, business development, guiding your company's growth or managing your career, reading opportunities will give you the advantage to succeed. Opportunities is another innovative tool brought to you by Travel Career Connexxions. For more information, visit http://www.TravelExecutive.com This week in Opportunities:
Vegas Launches Another Wave of Mega-Resorts To ensure that you always receive this newsletter and other communications from Travel Career Connexxions, please add our address to your Address Book (newsletter@travelexecutive.com). This will keep most email filters from misinterpreting and discarding these emails. Did you know? As of 11/16/04 there are 121 executive-level travel jobs published in the Travel Career Connexxions employment report. Positions include Director of Sales (11/10), Director of Operations (11/08), Regional Vice President (11/05), Regional Vice President of Sales (11/04), Director of E-Commerce Marketing (10/28), CEO, Chief Marketing Officer and more. It only takes one person to fill the job of a lifetime - and that someone could be you! http://www.TravelExecutive.com OPPORTUNITIES NEWS & TRENDS! Vegas Launches Another Wave of Mega-Resorts If you thought the major building in Las Vegas was over, think again. MGM Mirage's board of directors last week approved a plan to create a $4 billion dollar urban metropolis that will significantly accelerate the evolution of Las Vegas into a sophisticated multi-dimensional city. The 66-acre site, designated as Project CityCenter, will be developed over time into a master-planned urban complex defined by a variety of avenues, places and experiences. As envisioned, Project CityCenter represents the most significant privately funded project in the United States at this time. Located at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, Project CityCenter is approximately the same size as three major New York City landmarks combined: Rockefeller Center, SoHo and Times Square. The first phase of Project CityCenter will include the development of 18 million square feet of space consisting of a 4,000-room hotel/casino, three 400-room boutique hotels to be operated by world-famous hoteliers not currently represented in Las Vegas, approximately 550,000 square feet of retail shops, dining and entertainment venues, and 1,650 units of luxury condominium, hotel/condominium and private residence clubs. The first phase of the project is anticipated to create more than 7,000 construction jobs and, on completion, more than 12,000 new permanent positions. This represents the largest single new employment opportunity in the history of Las Vegas. Not to be outdone, Steve Wynn unveiled an expansion of its planned Wynn Las Vegas project on 20 acres of land adjacent to the existing site. The new development, tentatively named "Encore at Wynn Las Vegas," may include a 1,500 suite hotel tower, additional casino space and additional restaurants, a spa and swimming pools, and retail and convention space designed to capitalize on the significant infrastructure of Wynn Las Vegas, which is scheduled to open on April 28, 2005. While the plans for the expansion have not been finalized, Encore at Wynn Las Vegas is expected to cost approximately $900 million. Steve Wynn Looks to Fill 9,000 Jobs for Wynn Las Vegas The new wave of expansion in Las Vegas is already leading to some tangible job growth. Steve Wynn, for example, is hiring again and expects to receive more than 100,000 applications for more than 9,000 positions available at his new Wynn Las Vegas resort opening in April 2005. To manage job applications, the resort will use an innovative online application process that lets prospective employees fill out job applications and track their status on-line. The software behind the process is among the most advanced and effective in the country. "Within the first four days we received 27,000 applications," said Arte Nathan, senior vice president of human resources. "The best thing about this method is people don't have to wait in line. People can apply for jobs they're interested in from the convenience of their home, public library, friend's house, or any other computer they have access to. The application is easy to follow and if they have any questions, they can give us a call." Applicants who don't have access to a computer can call 702-770-JOBS to schedule an appointment or visit www.wynnjobs.com. The web site provides job descriptions and applications for more than 1,000 different positions. "People don't even need to write a resume," said Nathan. "They can just answer the questions in the application and there's plenty of space to add additional information and comments." Granted, most of these jobs are not at an executive level, but there are descriptions of roughly 1,000 different positions. IAC Travel Gets Another Change at the Top For the second time in two years, IAC-which owns such mega-online booking sites as Expedia and Hotels.com-is seeing a change at the top. IAC said Dara Khosrowshahi, now CFO of the company, will succeed Erik Blachford as president and CEO of IAC Travel. Khosrowshahi will continue to serve as CFO until this transition is complete and a successor is appointed. Blachford reportedly is leaving to spend more time with his family and seek another post that is more operations oriented. Richard Barton, who preceded Blachford as head of IAC Travel and Expedia, left the company in 2002 also seeking to spend more time with his family. He remains an IAC director. Khosrowshahi has been executive vice president and CFO of IAC since January 2002. In this capacity, he oversees all financial matters for the company. He also serves in the office of the chairman. He was previously IAC's executive vice president of operations and strategic planning since August 2000. From August 1999 to July 2000, he served as president, USA Networks Interactive, where he oversaw management, operations and strategic planning of the company's interactive services division. He joined IAC in 1998 as vice president of Strategic Planning. He was promoted to senior vice president in May 1999. Prior to joining the company, he worked at Allen & Company Incorporated from 1991 to 1998, where he served as vice president from 1995 to 1998. JupiterResearch Sees Online Travel Hitting $54 Billion in 2004 IAC's Eric Blachford may be getting out of online travel-at least temporarily-but that doesn't mean the sector doesn't have a bright future. JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation, unveiled its "Market Forecast Report, Travel 2004," which finds that the U.S. online travel market has grown at a fast pace over the last year, totaling $54 billion in 2004, or 23 percent of travel purchased. The online market is projected to grow to $91 billion in 2009, or 33 percent of travel purchased. Sales are growing for both online agencies such as Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity, as well as supplier Web sites, with supplier sites capturing the majority of the online market. In this highly price-sensitive industry, search engines are becoming a critical part of the marketing mix: more consumers are prompted to visit travel sites as a result of a search than through any other media source. In 2004 airline tickets remain the largest online leisure travel revenue category, representing $23.3 billion in revenue; over $11.6 billion in hotel revenue was booked by consumers in 2004; supplier Web sites will continue to increase their share of the market, increasing from 56 percent of online leisure travel revenue in 2004 to 60 percent by 2009; airlines and car rental companies will lead the charge in increasing direct online share; and new booking tools and increased compliance will drive the online managed travel market to $32 billion by 2009. TIA Survey Shows Travel Industry Is Back to Pre-9/11 Levels The airline business aside, the rest of the industry is well on its way to recovery. The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) unveiled its TIA Travel Business Status Survey, conducted among TIA members, showing that most of the industry has recovered from Sept. 11, 2001, the weak economy, and other world events. More than two-thirds of respondents said their business is back to pre-9/11 business levels. And 82 percent expect an increase in business in 2005. Major changes in travel patterns reported by TIA members include increases in online requests for information, online booking, and last-minute booking. As a result, many TIA members report increasing their e-marketing activities, and even more plan to do so in 2005. TIA expects that by the end of the year spending by domestic and international visitors in the U.S. will increase 6.9 percent, to about $593 billion, compared with $555 billion in 2003. It also is projecting a 5.3 percent increase in 2005, which would bolster travel expenditures to $624 billion. NLG Eliminates 50 Jobs--But Adds 250 Sales, Service Posts NLG, formerly known as National Leisure Group, has reportedly eliminated 50 positions in its corporate offices in Woburn, Mass. At the same time, however, the online vacation packager and cruise seller started hiring for about 250 sales and service-related jobs. "We've seen clearly that there's a need to realign our capital and employee resources to aggressively grow our cruise business," an NLG spokeswoman said. "The way to do that is to focus on--the sales and service staff, really to support the increased sales call volume." The layoffs, which account for about 4 percent of all jobs company wide, came a week after NLG's co-CEO Brad Gerstner resigned to move to an online search start-up company. NLG owns such cruise retail brands Cruises Only, CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. Royal Caribbean Keeps Building Even Bigger Ships Workers began heavy construction of Royal Caribbean International's newest, most futuristic ship. The new ship, which was just named Freedom of the Seas, is just the latest indication that the cruise industry is still running strong with no end in sight. "Freedom of the Seas will be the most head-turning, most innovative and most forward-looking ship in the cruise industry," said Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean's chairman and CEO. Freedom of the Seas builds on the line's popular Voyager-class ships, which include rock-climbing walls and ice-skating rinks. The company will reveal this ship's major new features as she takes shape in dry-dock. One feature will be the great freedom of space planned for the new ship. Freedom of the Seas will have some of the largest guest staterooms and the most spacious balconies in the industry. The ship also will have full-size, yet space-saving, flat screen TVs in 100 percent of the guest staterooms and public areas. It also will be free of wires by having extensive WiFi capabilities and connectivity for regular cell phones. Other functions will enhance the ship's security, navigational and environmental-management systems. Freedom of the Seas will be the world's largest cruise ship when she enters service in April 2006 at 158,000 gross registered tons and 3,600 guests (double occupancy). Grand Princess Makes Debut Out of Galveston, Texas Princess Cruises has joined the rush to regional homeports in the U.S. Grand Princess set sail on its first cruise from Galveston Nov. 8, becoming the largest, newest and most amenity-filled ship to sail from the Texas port. The vessel began a season featuring a week-long, four-port itinerary from Galveston. The 2,600-passenger Grand Princess will offer 22 roundtrip departures from Galveston between Nov. 8, 2004 and April 9, 2005. The itinerary will feature calls at some of the most scenic spots in the Western Caribbean, and offer passengers one more port than competitors' Galveston cruises in the fall. Princess' move follows a number of other cruise lines that have developed more homeports in the U.S., which has led to more job creation at both the lines themselves and the surrounding port infrastructure. Beaches Resorts Plans 300-Room Property in St. Lucia Sandals and Beaches Resorts have announced plans to expand the company's Beaches Resorts brand to St. Lucia. This will be the fifth Beaches in the growing family-themed chain, the first Beaches in the Eastern Caribbean and the fourth-owned resort by Sandals on St. Lucia. This $80 million resort, located on Pigeon Island next to the causeway, will feature 300 rooms set on 35 acres of prime beachfront property recently acquired by Beaches Resorts. Beaches Resorts estimates hiring a workforce of 350 during the construction phase and 600 full-time jobs when it commences operation. The Beaches Resort in St. Lucia is the fourth major building project taking place at this time. The largest Sandals property, Sandals Grande Ocho Rios Beach & Villa Resort, will be unveiled in December 2004; Sandals Whitehouse European Village & Spa, built from the ground up in Jamaica's South Coast region, will open in February 2005; and Sandals Antigua Caribbean Village & Spa is in the midst of a $25 million expansion plan. Four Seasons Sets Expansion Plan for Third China City Four Seasons is another hotel company on the growth path. It just signed an agreement to manage a new hotel in Beijing, scheduled to open in mid 2006. With this announcement, Four Seasons establishes itself in China's three most important markets. Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai opened in 2002, and Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong is scheduled to open in 2005. Located in Beijing's diplomatic and commercial center, the new hotel will be ideal for business and leisure guests. Four Seasons Hotel Beijing will offer approximately 300 guest rooms and suites built around a central atrium. InterContinental Hotels Opens Buckhead Atlanta Property InterContinental Hotels Group officially opened its $115 million InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta last week. The hotel marks the first newly built luxury hotel to enter the Atlanta market since 1991. The hotel is located in the heart of the Buckhead community at Atlanta's most famous address, Peachtree Road. The 21-story high-rise offers 401 guest rooms and 21 suites. The hotel has 31,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space, including two spectacular ballrooms, smaller meeting rooms and two intimate boardrooms. Marriott International Opens Bethesda North Marriott Marriott International, Inc. opened the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. The 225-room property will employ nearly 280. The hotel's 35,000 square feet of meeting space includes a 23,300-square-foot Grand Ballroom--the third largest in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., area--that can accommodate up to 3,000 people for meetings or catered receptions. Network with Hotel Pros at HSMAI's Internet Marketing Event Want to find out more about the electronic distribution of hotel rooms--and network with those who are tops in the profession? The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is holding its third Hotel Internet Marketing Strategy Conference on Dec. 7, 2004 at the Millennium Biltmore in Los Angeles, immediately preceding the 2004 HEDNA Conference. Headlining this event are the most critical issues impacting Internet marketing professionals, from inventory management to search marketing and dynamic packaging. The program is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Millennium Biltmore located at 506 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. The conference will feature a welcome and introduction, lunch, networking reception and supplier showcase. Topics covered include "Certifying Intermediaries: Understanding the pros and cons of the InterContinental Hotels Group Decision," "Trademark Protection: The latest on protecting your brand online," "Online Travel Search Engines: Driving revenue directly to your site," "Affiliate Marketing: Does affiliate marketing work? Is it worth the time and trouble? For more information, visit www.hsmai.com. OPPORTUNITIES EXECUTIVE MOVERS! CRUISES: Star Cruises announced three key executives have been given new appointments with its wholly-owned Miami-based subsidiary, NCL Group. Gary Sharman, formerly senior vice president-sales and marketing for Star Cruises, has been named vice president-marketing and sales-Asia Pacific for Norwegian Cruise Line. Sharman will remain at the Star Cruises Group's head office in Port Klang, Malaysia. Braydon Holland, the former director of sales and marketing Australia/New Zealand for Star Cruises, remains in Sydney as NCL's regional director of sales and marketing. Star's former New Zealand sales manager, Gary Westwood, is now New Zealand sales manager for NCL and remains in Auckland. Holland and Westwood will report to Sharman and will continue to represent Star Cruises in the region. A Star spokesman said the company wants to increase its efforts in the region for NCL products...Amerigo Perasso, who has served as general counsel at Silversea Cruises for the past three years, was named CFO of the company. He replaces Pradeep Bajaj, senior vice president and CFO, who resigned after nine years with the line. Perasso also will assume the duties of chief revenue officer, a role that has been held by Bill Leiber for the past year. Leiber, who joined Silversea in 2000 in the top sales and marketing position, becomes senior advisor to Silversea's board, spearheading and overseeing special projects. Perasso will report to Silversea CEO Albert Peter and divide his time among the company's offices in Fort Lauderdale, London and Monaco. The Lefebvre family, owners of Silversea, appointed Perasso in 1996 to oversee corporate matters and transactions related to the family business holdings. He officially joined the line as general counsel in 2001 and has been instrumental in negotiating and executing projects including shipbuilding contracts, newbuild financing and company refinancing. He has been a member of the board as well as serving on Silversea's executive committee. Bajaj will continue at Silversea during a transitional phase. During his nine years at the line, he served as a key player in planning and development, including the arrangement of $330 million in financing for Silversea's fleet expansion...Jackie Matthews has been named public relations manager for Cunard Line, based at the company's new California corporate headquarters. She will manage media relations, marketing communications and special events throughout the Americas and handle the PR activities surrounding Queen Victoria's introduction in 2007. Matthews formerly served as senior account director for Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell/Novom (Novom Marketing), a Los Angeles-based firm specializing in hospitality industry clients, where she spearheaded public relations campaigns for a variety of large-scale resorts and boutique hotels in California, New Mexico and Mexico. HOTELS & RESORTS: Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, the new manager of the Mayfair Hotel & Spa, formerly Mayfair House Hotel, has named Hans Bratt to serve as the hotel's general manager. Bratt will help facilitate the re-branding of the historic Coconut Grove hotel as it undergoes $10 million in renovations and becomes the Mayfair Hotel & Spa, a Kimpton Hotel. Bratt most recently held the position of general manager at The Raleigh Hotel on South Beach. A citizen of the U.S. and Sweden, he has 22 years of experience in the hospitality industry and has held management positions at prominent hotels in the United States, Europe and South America. Prior to The Raleigh, he was general manager at the InterContinental Cozumel Resort...Jonathan Raggett, managing director of Red Carnation Hotels, announced that Christine Hodder has been appointed general manager at the five-star Milestone Hotel in Kensington, London. Hodder joins the hotel after having spent the last two years as general manager of The World of Residensea, a cruise ship. Prior to that, she held sales, marketing and general manager positions at a number of prestigious establishments, including The Four Seasons and Mandarin Oriental. Over recent years the Milestone Hotel has won a number of highly respected awards, including Leading Small Hotels of the World Commitment to Quality Award, Best Small Hotel in Europe and Harden's Best Hotel in London...Benchmark Hospitality International has appointed Eric Adame as general manager for Hotel ICON. The exclusive property is a Personal Luxury Hotel by Benchmark, and is set in the Landmark Union National Bank Building at the gateway to downtown Houston's arts & entertainment district. The move represents a promotion for Adame, a highly accomplished hotelier with nearly two decades of experience in the management of premium hotels and resorts. He originally joined Benchmark in 2002 as director of rooms for the Scottsdale Resort & Conference Center of Scottsdale, Ariz. His responsibilities at the resort involved overseeing the operations of several service departments, including the rooms division, front office, bell captain and valet, transportation, housekeeping, security, engineering, and the sports & fitness center. Prior to joining Benchmark, Adame was director of rooms at the Royal Palms Hotel and Casitas in Phoenix. He has been involved with luxury properties since the early 1990s, including The Orchid at Mauna Lani on the Big Island of Hawaii, Stein Erickson Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah, and the signature Phoenician Resort of Scottsdale. Adame launched his career in hospitality in 1985, working in operations for several luxury resorts in the Scottsdale market. Located at the gateway to downtown Houston's thriving arts and entertainment district the hotel features 135 guestrooms and nine penthouse suites; as well as Bank, a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant; The Whiskey, a Rande Gerber/Midnight Oil Company bar; and the BALANCE Day Spa... Charles Burton has been named hotel manager for The Homestead. Burton, who has served as Rooms Division Manager since his arrival at The National Historic Landmark in 2000, has been focused on providing a top-notch guest experience since he came on board at the resort. As hotel manager, he will focus on key areas that touch every Homestead visitor and will provide the leadership necessary to insure the high standards of service and variety of amenity offerings are maintained at the luxury destination resort. A native of Austin, Texas, Burton began his hospitality career at The Homestead's sister property, Barton Creek resort in Austin. During his tenure at the famed Texas golf destination, he played a vital role in the resort's growth and expansion. He held positions as conference assistant manager, concierge/bell desk/transportation manager, guest services and resort security director and rooms division manager. In addition, John Hoover has been named director of food and beverage. Hoover has focused much of his education and interest on a life-long passion for an outstanding culinary experience. An avid traveler, enthusiastic Epicurean and knowledgeable wine connoisseur, he has spent much of his life benchmarking some the best dining experiences available. Hoover and his wife Pamela had been regular guests of The Homestead until 1998, when he began consulting as the resort's historian. He led The Homestead's effort to more fully document and utilize its history and hospitality heritage...Dale Freer has been named director of sales and marketing for the landmark Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, and will be responsible for spearheading and executing all property sales and marketing initiatives. Prior to joining the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Freer was director of sales and marketing for the Hilton Suites in Phoenix. During his time there, he successfully revitalized the hotel's occupancy rates and revenue flow. Freer was also responsible for securing sponsorship contracts with key Arizona organizations such as the America West Arena, Diamond Backs Baseball Organization and the Dodge Theatre. He also served as interim director of sales and marketing for the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in California, where he was responsible for managing a sales staff of 15 in direct interaction with conference services, catering and banquet management. Freer also oversaw sales revenues totaling 10 million dollars annually for the 392 room, 26 suite resort with 30,000 square feet of meeting and convention facilities. Among other positions Freer has held include serving as group sales manager for the Walt Disney Company in Anaheim, Calif., and as vice president for group and convention sales and marketing for Universal City Florida. TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: TripAdvisor, A leading travel research site owned by IAC Travel, named Christine Petersen as vice president of marketing. In her new role, Petersen will lead TripAdvisor's worldwide marketing initiatives and play a substantial role in the company's growth. With over 15 years of marketing and product development experience, Petersen joins TripAdvisor from Travelocity (formerly Preview Travel, Inc.), where she was vice president of member services and customer marketing since 1999. She was responsible for the development, implementation and management of marketing strategies for the company, including "Travelocity Preferred," a premium membership program, management of customer marketing programs and the development of additional services that enhanced overall Travelocity membership. Prior to joining Travelocity, Petersen held various senior level marketing positions at Charles Schwab & Co, American Express, and Fidelity
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