International Hotels & Restaurants Association 160 Years of Service to the Global Hospitality Industry

Conference Quality of Life and Regional Development Tourism and Hospitality April 19 th 2012 Annapolis, Maryland, USA By Dr. Ghassan AIDI, President

Hospitality Industry Well we have here 3 major topics : Quality of Life, Regional Development, and Tourism and Hospitality Three subjects that they need weeks to develop and talk about these topics, But I am happy that finally someone did associate Hospitality with Quality of Life and I will try to resume as much as I can

Hospitality Industry Yes our Hospitality sector is an Industry and an important Industry employing more than 60 million and contributing about 1000 billion USD annually to the Global Economy. This Industry will continue its expansion with various degree following the regions in the World

Hospitality Recovery We are starting the recovery process but still we are not in full recovery since I do anticipate a stronger 2012 year than 2011 and RevPar gains will be driven by Higher Rack Rate as well as higher occupancy. IHRA is optimistic for the future of our Hospitality Industry with our unlimited Development and growth.

The Tourism Industry has in the past years generate a very large number of highly diversified jobs in various activities such as Hotels, Restaurant, resorts, Travel and Tour operators, transportation and airlines. Human Resources is a very important element to assure the quality of these products and the Jobs related.

Hospitality Growth Current Demand/Supply ration will help to push the performance of our Industry. Do you know that every day 10 Hotels are opened somewhere in the World, IHRA statistic show 3000 Hotels are opened every year. The demand is growing for all various type of Hotels where Luxury now represent 50% of all development as consumers are looking for a better quality.

CLIMATE CHANGE/SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, THE FUTUR Well If we want to talk about Quality of Life, we have to start to understand the effect of the climate change, to define a certain criteria for sustainable development. The Consumers today is becoming more and more educate and their demand is growing for Hotels applying sustainable practices to help protect our planet. Various criteria has been organized and lately with UN Foundation a Global sustainable tourism criteria had been defined for tourism Industry.

consumers and Quality Understanding the effect of the climate change, did lead us to define these criteria. The Consumers today is becoming more and more educate for the quality of tourism and their demand is growing for Hotels applying sustainable practices to help protect our planet.

WATER IN OCEAN WILL RISE TEMPERATURE WILL RISE SNOW COVER WILL BE REDUCED RAINFALL WILL CHANGE ITS SEASON and will decline

The Mediterranean basin countries will suffer from Water problem and from tourism arrivals at the middle of this century. The northern part of Europe will enjoy the climate change with raise of the heat and the North sea costal area will be the “new” Riviera

Greece, Spain, Italy, France will have a very dramatically consequences as more than 200 millions of tourist (20% of the total World tourists) today spend their vacation at these countries.

We do believe that indirectly several human factors did contribute to this disaster of climate change as Gas Emissions, transportation with fuel consumption and high emission of CO2, deforestation and the destruction of coral in ocean and sea

We have to conciliate environment and Tourism with respect to the environment as well as associate the Local human factors to projects that will assure them a better life and assure travelers and tourists to think otherwise than their own leisure's

A STAR IS BORN.

EMERAUDE HOTEL We start this year certifying our members to apply these criteria under our unique Label EMERAUDE HOTEL. As we are the ONLY hospitality association certifying members Hotels. We did prepare a manual for each hotel to help him respecting these criteria.

EMERAUDE HOTEL All our Ambassadors visiting Hotels are Hoteliers themselves and do understand how to help them to apply the criteria's. Three level has been developed: 1. One Emeraude for Hotels applying between 50 and 70% of criteria. 2. Two Emeraude for hotels applying between 70 and 85%. 3. Three Emeraude for Hotels respecting more than 85% of Criteria.

Today in 2012 consumers moods are changing worldwide toward a new quality of life, more and more people are dining out, consumers is becoming educated and demanding and will continue over the year to demand more and more. This is a revolution in the Food Industry. Our Industry has to be prepared year after year to meet consumers demand

As for Restaurants Industry,The top Convenience Food trends for 2012 are: 1- Ready to Eat and to prepare. 2-One dish meals. 3- Gluten free food. 4- Regional Food. 5- International Exotic Food. 6- Exotic fruit. 9- Smaller entrée portion size.

Regional Development is becoming more and more popular instead of going overseas and learning about various issues as Laws, languages, stability, Financial ability to borrow, etc.. these issues are much more easy to do it at Home. Following my Experience in investing in 10 different countries from USA, Europe, Africa and Middle East, I still believe that best investment and development place will be here in the US.

We should invest NOW in the Hospitality as nobody is interested to do it. Excellent opportunities exist generating great revenues at the end of this crisis. We do believe strongly its time for investment,conversion and construction as the cost for Building is much cheaper now than before as the demand decrease The market will got adjustment for development

The Tourism Industry has in the past years generate a very large number of highly diversified jobs in various activities such as Hotels, Restaurant, resorts, Travel and Tour operators, transportation and airlines. Human Resources is a very important element to assure the quality of these products and the Jobs related.

Conclusion 2012 will be challenging but to our Industry but not impossible to get over with it. The Hospitality Industry as a whole needs to become positive and explore our unlimited opportunities Remember that our Industry is the largest employer in the History and do employ more than 950 million of workers and we are the last barrier and the major fighter against the poverty in the world

Who We Are The only international trade association exclusively devoted to promoting and defending the interests of the hotel and restaurant industry worldwide (Private Sector) A non-profit membership organization dedicated to helping members achieve business objectives and prepare for the future

IHRA HISTORY Founded in Koblenz Germany in 1869, as International Hotelmen Alliance (IHA) KOBLENZ

What We Do Protect Industry Interests Act as Industry Watchdog Keep Members Informed Build a Business Network Help Building a structure Defining various procedures GLOBALLY

Our Vision… We are the voice Of the global hotel and restaurant industry

Our Mission… Provide a platform for: Formation of Industry Positions International Representation Information Dissemination International Connections

Who We Represent Through its membership network, IH&RA represents an estimated 400,000 hotels and 6 million restaurants

Hotels & Restaurants such as…

Strategic Partnerships Global Organizations & Associations Worldwide Partners

WHO - World Health Organisation WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organisation WTO - World Trade Organisation ILO - International Labour Organization Our international network “The UN Family” UN - United Nations UNESCO - UN Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation UNEP - UN Environment Program UNWTO - UN World Tourism Organization

International Hotel & Restaurant Association THANK YOU 160 Years of Service to the Global Hospitality Industry