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Centara Hotels & Resorts announces promotion
of Andre Brulhart to
Area General Manager
Thirayuth Chirathivat, Chief Executive Officer of Centara Hotels & Resorts
has announced the promotion of Andre Brulhart as Area General Manager. Andre
will remain General Manager of Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort Pattaya and
at the same time oversee the new Centara Grand Modus Resort & Spa Pattaya,
which will open in the third quarter of this year.
Andre Brulhart.
Brulhart is a Swiss national and a graduate of the Lausanne Hotel Management
School in Switzerland. He has over 30 years’ hotel experience in Europe, USA
and mainly in Asia. Beginning his career at the Hong Kong Hilton, Brulhart
has also held positions at the Kahala Hilton, The Regent Bangkok, Sofitel
Metropole Hanoi, and The Plaza Athenee Bangkok.
He has worked at Centara Hotels & Resorts since 2005, starting as Resident
Manager at Centara Grand at Central Plaza Ladprao Bangkok. He was then
promoted and transferred to be General Manager at Centara Karon Resort
Phuket in 2008 before being transferred to his latest position as General
Manager at Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort Pattaya in 2010. After eight
years of experience with Centara, the board of directors feel he is ideally
placed to further develop Centara’s strategic position in Pattaya.
Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort, located directly on the beach at Wong
Amat in North Pattaya, is the first truly themed hotel in Thailand, being
designed to a Lost World concept. Centara Grand Modus Resort & Spa Pattaya
is located directly on the beach at Naklua, next to the famous Sanctuary of
Truth, and is a family-friendly resort with 215 rooms.
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Skål National President: “Thailand’s tourism has a great future”
Ton Gerrits,
Skål Intl Hua Hin & Cha Am
“Tourism in Thailand has a great future. The hospitality industry has
recovered completely from a chain of natural disasters and political
disruptions and is now preparing for the advent of the ASEAN Economic
Community,” says Andrew J Wood, National President of Skål International
Thailand.
 Andrew
J Wood speaks at the Skål meeting in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hua Hin.
Andrew J Wood was speaking at a Skål meeting in the
Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hua Hin. He also aired his concern that the huge
numbers of visitors demand an improvement of the infrastructure.
“Electric, fast trains, even possibly bullet trains as well as quality
highways linking our regional partner countries are needed to
accommodate the growth in the tourist industry,” the Skål President
continues. “AEC 2015 offers tremendous challenges for tourism in
Thailand. Thailand must be cognizant, however, of its neighbors. They
are aggressive and very competent. If Thailand fails to improve its
infrastructure and to prepare for an open inter-connected free market in
time, it will miss the opportunities created by AEC 2015.
“AEC 2015 allows free movement of people and goods in its territory.
Tourism always has operations that cross national borders. AEC 2015 will
be very beneficial in smoothing the work of amongst others, tour
operators, airlines and hotel chains. AEC 2015 offers plenty of
opportunities including the free movement of the workforce, but Thailand
needs to be ready to maximize the business opportunities created by the
advent of the ASEAN Economic Community.
“It is more than 25 years since Thailand launched the ‘Visit Thailand
Year’, which marked the decision to develop the tourist industry. In
1986, 400,000 visitors came to Thailand, a number that tripled after the
launch of the ‘Visit Thailand Year’. We now need to take the AEC
blueprint and integrate this into a national tourism plan for Thailand,
with a focus on sustainability.”
Andrew J Wood is convinced that 2013 will be a bumper year for Thailand,
with 24 million visitors surpassing the 22 million visitors in 2012. He
refers to the growing numbers of visitors from Thailand’s largest source
markets, like China, India and Russia and he sees a significant increase
of visitors from the 9 ASEAN member states.
Skål facilitates the hospitality industry by offering networking
opportunities and regular meetings and congresses.
“Social media is now the key buzzword, but nothing builds better
relationships than old fashioned face-to-face meetings with your peers.
At Skål, networking is why we exist and thus we are even more relevant
today than ever before,” says Wood.
Skål also initiates dialogue amongst its members and government agencies
and through its leadership promotes sustainability in the tourism
industry. Its members comprise among others professionals from travel
agents, NTO’s, hotels, tour operators, golf courses, restaurants, spas,
MICE and eCommerce companies. With 18,000 members worldwide and 450
clubs in 85 countries Skål is the largest organization of its kind.
Established in 1932, the organization promotes the ethic of doing
business among friends. Peace, friendship and sustainable, environment
friendly developments in the tourism industry are keywords for Skål.
Thailand has six Skål clubs; Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Koh
Samui and Phuket.
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