4 minute read
Mr Hospitality: Todd Wynne-Parry
The 2023 Eco Resort Network summit was once again a very special meeting of inspirational people and some with aspirational eco resort projects. It was my pleasure to attend for the second year in a row.
This year, my partner DeeDee Taft joined me at the end of the conference to see Montenegro and Dubrovnik. While doing so my close friend, client, and fellow network member Rachel Bowers joined us for lunch in Dubrovnik. We have been working together over the last year on her eco resort on an amazing site in Northern California. Later that same week, another friend and fellow network member, Louis Thompson, founder and CEO of Nomadic Resorts along with his beautiful family joined us for dinner.
Following Croatia, we then extended the trip to visit family and friends in Italy and Greece. Serendipitously, a consulting engagement also placed me in Greece at the end of this visit. This engagement was to identify multiple glamping sites for my client and developer Ivan Loanidi who also attended the conference in Montenegro. To accomplish this outcome and provide local market intelligence and guidance on the development process in Greece, Xenophon Petropoulos, head of the Horwath HTL office in Athens joined the team. We were able to identify several suitable sites and at this writing, further investigation into the viability of site acquisitions is continuing.
Not long after returning from Greece, my friend and fellow network member David Leventhal, co-founder of Regenerative Travel and developer of Playa Viva Resort came to visit me at my home in Bend, Oregon. We were able to golf and fly fish here in Central Oregon over an extended weekend. This was one of the few recreational times during this busy summer. Work had me in Palm Springs, California doing a repositioning exercise for a small downtown hotel and in the Texas Hill Country for a feasibility study on a 100-unit glamping resort.
Marketing efforts for the outdoor hospitality industry in general and the Horwath HTL Outdoor Hospitality practice in particular were many this year. I have continued writing for the Glamping Business Americas magazine, published by Steph Curtis-Raleigh. She and her team have been great supporters of mine and do such great work on all their endeavors. While attending the Glamping Show Americas in October, Steph and I met and embarked on a collaboration to publish a book of a collection of my recent articles which will be available in the new year.
In the last month I spoke on a panel at the American Association of RV Campground’s annual Outdoor Hospitality conference and expo. Later, while being inducted into the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (“ISHC”), I moderated a panel featuring Peter Mack, CEO of Collective Retreats, Cale Genenbacher, CEO of LOGE Camps, and Whitney Scott, COO of Terramor Outdoor Resorts. These young professionals wowed the audience of 115 hotel consultants from around the world. Then early in November, I was invited to conduct three class sessions as part of a lecture series on outdoor hospitality at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. This involved providing insights into what outdoor hospitality is and career possibilities in the sector. Nearly 150 students from The Collins College of Hospitality Management attended.
I look forward to continuing my efforts to promote the outdoor hospitality industry as well as working together with Eco Resort Network members globally. This network and conference have been very beneficial to me and my consulting practice. I look forward to hopefully seeing many of you in the near future.
