Yannis - John Kent's Blog

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

“The John Kent Institute in Tourism.” at Bournemouth University

Throughout my career I have realised that the most important assets in business is intellect and agility. In few occasions people are born with these and can have a head start in life. The vast majority of us have to develop it through life experiences and training that occurs throughout our life. Several factors can help including being at the right place at the right time, being exposure to innovative environments, respect tradition but look for forward trends, challenges and opportunities. I have realised early enough that to be successful I need to be close to knowledge creators and to be engaged in the process of creating knowledge. Working constantly in a wide range of businesses I also had the opportunity to apply knowledge, try it, test it and assist with its further development. International exposure, postgraduate studies and open mind provide the ability to think out of the box and this is one of the key criterion for selecting my colleagues and collaborators. I believe in education and I feel that the tourism industry can only go forward if we improve the quality of our executives and bring them to similar levels with other industries.

That is the reason I have worked closely with researchers and academics. Over the years personal friends have become colleagues and members of the Board of various companies I build. I have also been very closely involved with a number of Universities and I have contributed as Visiting Fellow to the University of Surrey. More recently I was honoured by the Professor Paul Curran, Bournemouth University Vice-Chancellor with a Visiting Fellowship and with the establishment of this new Bournemouth University based Institute will fund a considerable number of PhD studentships in tourism research, commencing with eleven over the next four years. This is a major initiative in tourism research that will enable me to support an already strong University with particularly strong focus on Tourism Marketing and e-Tourism. Being a Visiting Fellow I will contribute with guest lectures and support for research.

Quality in education is of great importance to me and I am honored and proud to now be able to give something in this field with the establishement of the institite, offering a chance for research to go one step further . I found it enormously rewarding and beneficial and look forward to continue strong in the future.

Sunday, 15 November 2009

Aquis experiences: Towards new products and services in the hospitality industry

My experience in the travel business for more than 20 years has demonstrated that those who win are innovative entrepreneurs that constantly looking for innovations and take advantage of market trends and challenges for improving value for their clients. When I founded AQUIS Hotels and Resorts I was minded not only to acquire great properties in fantastic locations but also to understand the market trends and design products and services for the future. AQUIS Hotels and Resorts SA is managed by a team of established hospitality and tourism professionals, both in the Board and Management team, with international experience and track record for innovation and advanced management.

One of the key trends that we find internationally is the focus on the Experience Economy as first introduced by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore book titled "The Experience Economy". Pine and Gilmore argue that businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers and that memory itself becomes the product - the "experience" adding value over and above the business inputs. This is particularly true for the tourism and hospitality I strongly believe that competitive advantage in the future will only emerge through mastering customer experience management for each individual customer within a framework of mass production processes that are hidden in the background. Customers become actors and we need to provide them the stage to perform.

In AQUIS Hotels and Resorts we work on these concepts to develop our competitive advantage and provide services for the future. Led by the expertise of international Tourism Marketing guru and Board Member Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, AQUIS has done a thorough review of what we offer and created a vision of providing memorable experiences through dynamic services, here, by the hospitable Mediterranean sea. AQUIS breaks the hotel management mould and revolutionises customer experiences at beautiful seaside resorts through a dynamic management style that allows the customization of products to customer needs. All that, within an affordable-luxury framework and environment.

In AQUIS Hotels and Resorts we offer the AQUISenjoy experience, a holistic customer care system which reverses the hospitality processes. We start all processes from the customer needs and requirements and we see the holiday through the customer eyes. We then have a number of sub experiences that are designed to support customers’ different contexts and needs. For example the AQUISconnect is about connecting families together to spend quality time; AQUISplay is our children product; AQUIS love is all about understanding the power of love and providing a great environment to blossom; AQUISlive is about opportunities to be active and adventurous; AQUIS pamper is about pampering and indulging; AQUISmeet is our conference and meeting product that enables delegates to work and play and AQUIStaste is about exploring food through experiencing the Mediterranean cuisine/diet and discoverying sushi and Asian cuisine through our KuKuTsi sushi bars.

All our marketing is based on this philosophy and our innovative approach to things is already evident in our reviews and the comments that our customers leave on Tripadvisor. Innovation, customer focus and looking after all our people is the way that I will lead AQUIS forward. A recipe that I have followed through all my career and paid dividends at all levels !