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Editor’s Letter
BLUE SEA THINKING Kempinski Hotel Cancún, right next to the turquoise water of the Caribbean
Farhad Heydari
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ultratravel
Hospitality Sweet
Of all the sectors (or verticals, as they are so often called these days) that I’ve had the chance to work in and collaborate with over two decades as an observer, commentator and consumer of luxury – from watches and wine to golf and gastronomy and even art and architecture – the one closest to my heart remains hospitality.
For those who embark on a career in hospitality attain a broad-based toolbox of intel and understanding into some of the aforementioned disciplines, and invariably dozens more. In hospitality, you also obtain a level of intuition about the human condition and interpersonal relationships that is unmatched elsewhere: the ability to read, understand and interpret people (colleagues and guests alike) with a sixth sense.
So, when those of us who spend the lion’s share of our work lives and businesses in the industry get together – regardless of which company, hotel group, cruise line or aviation purveyor we are working with or employed by – it instantly translates into the most convivial of collegiate outings, much as it did this past October at the Forum and at The ULTRAs.
Held in London, the event brought together executives from our broader GHA family of brands but also speakers, panellists and attendees who not only opined about the state of the world and our industry writ large but also about the universal human impulse to congregate and gather – the very basic tenet of our society that the pandemic tried to extinguish. You can get a sense of the glee with which we embraced that opportunity on page 26.
I hope the holiday season is filled with just as much merriment for you and yours, wherever you happen to gather – and that this issue of our magazine provides the impetus for continued immutable wanderlust in concurrence or post-haste.
