Glenn de Souza, VP Operations Best Western Asia & M.E.: "Hoteliers need to go back to the basics"

Mr Glenn de Souza, Vice President Operations of Best Western Asia & Middle East talks to TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific at his headquarter in Bangkok.

Mr Glenn de Souza, Vice President Operations of Best Western Asia & Middle East talks to TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific about the hospitality trends in the region, the impact of the technology in the distribution of the hotel product, the  mature and emerging markets, and many more.

Question 1

We are with Mr Glenn de Souza, Vice President International Operations Asia & Middle East of Best Western. Mr de Souza I would like to ask you about Best Western's development plans in Asia & Middle East and also please give us some information about the position and the market share of Best Western in the various Asian markets.



Question 2

Since you are managing Best Western Asia and Middle East from your offices here in Thailand I would like to ask you what trends do you see in the hospitality industry in Thailand having in mind that it's a very important incoming destination in Asia but it's also a delicate destination for several reasons. Also, I would like to ask you about the trends in the Asia and Middle East generally if we consider that for long time now there is a big ressession in Europe and in USA and maybe the only developing region is Asia nowadays.



Question 3

I would like to ask you about the role of China in the development of tourism in Asia because China now is evolving very fast and goes everywhere actually in this region and apart from China if you consider as important other markets like India, Indonesia, and also in the incoming field I would like to ask you about Saudi Arabia in Middle East which is developing fast and they try to receive some tourists but they are not so open yet, and Myanmar here in Asia which is the jewel as some people say. How do you comment on those?



Question 4

We see that the traditional business model of the distribution of the hotel products has changed many years now, and we see that technology is used day by day even more to book hotels and a lot of Online Travel Agents appear everyday everywhere around the world. So, what do you see is the impact of technology in the distribution of the hotel product and how this part of the world, Asia and Middle East, is reacting?



Question 5

What do you believe that needs to be improved and changed to the hospitality services in Asia and Middle East. Generally, the Asia product is considered as a value for money product but I am sure that there are a more things to be done.