IHG’s ambitious regional expansion
Bastien Blanc, VP Operations, Middle East and North Africa, IHG talks about the brand’s regional expansion plans and the many ways new technologies are helping this growth. What are some of the most recent projects being or planned to be implemented? 2019 has been an exciting year for us so...
Traditions bring us together this Ramadan!
This year, the Pullman Dubai Creek City Centre will be the venue where three regional chefs will cook up a storm during the Holy Month of Ramadan and HN finds out what is in store. Who are the three chefs and what are their individual specialties? Pullman Dubai Creek City...
Lebanon’s Selim A. Bassoul recognized as one of WFF’s industry titans
Recently retired Chairman and CEO at Middleby Corporation Brands Selim A. Bassoul was elected one of this year’s Women’s Foodservice Forum personalities. He will be recognized as a WFF Industry Titan at the 2019 Annual Leadership Development Conference. Bassoul, through his unrelenting dedication, helped solve one of the industry’s toughest...
Over 500 new hotels are under construction in the Middle East and Africa
The Middle East total represented almost a 10 percent year-over-year increase in the number of rooms in the final phase of the development pipeline.
Château Ksara once again wins Cannes gold
Château Ksara, Lebanon’s leading winery once again won a gold medal at the 16th Mondial du Rosé in Cannes for its 2018 Sunset bottle. This year, over 1,000 wines from more than 20 countries were submitted to 67 judges from 18 nations. Made with Cabernet Franc and Syrah, it was...
New chief executive officer appointed at DUR
Al-Otaibi was a member of the Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage which prepared for the Saudi hotel regulations.
Meet the world’s first AI created whisky
Together with Finnish tech company Fourkind and Microsoft, Mackmyra is creating the world’s first whisky developed with artificial intelligence (AI). The distillery’s machine learning models, powered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and AI cognitive services, are fed with existing recipes (including those for award-winning blends), sales data, and customer preferences. With this data the AI can generate more than 70 million recipes that it predicts will be popular and of the highest quality.
Anantara Eastern Mangroves welcomes a new GM
Prior to his new post, he had spent nearly two decades in the hotels industry in his native Egypt before relocating to the Middle East in 2005.
