In an exclusive interview with Gilda Perez-Alvarado, the Group Chief Strategy Officer at Accor and Chief Executive Officer of Orient Express, she discusses reshaping Orient Express into a pinnacle of luxury experiences. This involves blending tradition with innovation to redefine the essence of travel. Alvarado shares strategies for balancing nostalgia with modernity and navigating global expansion. Key points discussed include brand revitalization, market trends, and the delicate balance between tradition and modernization. Watch now!
Patrick Whyte:
Gilda Perez-Alvarado, thank you very much for joining us. So you relatively recently took over at Orient Express. Can you talk a little bit about the brand and the plans for it?
Gilda Perez-Alvarado:
So Orient Express is one of the most strategic initiatives Accor has ever done. We're trying to crack two things at the same time. One is to develop our most luxurious brand to date, so that one will be positioned at the highest end of the echelon. And number two, we're really going after experiences. So we're not just focused on hotels, we're including yachts and trains for now.
Patrick Whyte:
That's really interesting because that's been a trend for the last few years, developing outside of hotels. But how do you sell that? What's the investment implications for a hospitality investor, for those other assets?
Gilda Perez-Alvarado:
Listen, everybody's focused right now on experiences, it's not just about the traditional hotel. It's not just about the traditional guest room. We're looking at it from the whole experiential dimension. And that's what people want across all demographics actually. And so what we're doing is we're taking a magnificent brand that is over 140 years old and making it relevant again and redeveloping the infrastructure so that it can be relevant for another 140 years. So how are we doing it? Honestly, it feels like we're a startup within a very big machine and we're looking at everything from scratch, obviously respecting the history, the legacy. We have a fundación that is affiliated just with Orient Express, but also we're looking at everything inside out, technology. What does it mean for guests? Who's our target market? What do they want? How do we redefine service? What experiences are they going to want? So it really is a massive challenge, but one that is very rewarding.
Patrick Whyte:
I think everyone's got a view of the Orient Express from their childhood, the trains, the magnificent decor and their luxurious styling. How do you translate that brand image to a modern hotel? Is that a big challenge?
Gilda Perez-Alvarado:
It is a big challenge. So we're doing a ton of research, consulting the archives, of course, to make sure that we're true to brand. But also working with several advisors, agencies, etc., to make sure that our tone of voice is appropriate for today. Doing quite a bit of demographic research as well to see what people want, what they expect, and how to make sure that what we offer is not something that is just a fad, but something that takes into consideration all these major shifts that are impacting the industry at the highest end of the spectrum.
Patrick Whyte:
Yeah, I was going to say, what do you see impacting and changing the consumer demand for this brand? What's underpinning the strategy from Accor?
Gilda Perez-Alvarado:
Listen, it's a little bit of everything. Nowadays, it's not enough to say, "Oh, I just want to target this very specific demographic, or just the ultra-high net worth individual or this specific region." Luxury knows no boundaries now. How do you define luxury? I mean, you look at all the consumer good brands and they've actually gone through a little bit of explorations. Some have done it very well, others haven't. Some have stayed very true to developing everything in-house. Others are growing through collaboration. So we're in the process of finding our own definition. One that, again, is true to Orient Express, and something that is quite challenging is this isn't just a brand that we're starting from scratch, but everybody has an opinion as to what Orient Express is or was, right? There's literary implications with Agatha Christie. There's the train, there's the journey, there's the connecting Europe to the east.
So we have to make sure that we're respecting the DNA. And what we found that was very interesting is the brand is bigger than any one person. So when we're looking at building it, it really is the power of the collective. And if you look at how we're going to activate the brand, be it through America's Cup right now, or yachting or trains or hotels, it's not about any one man or any one woman, whatever, just coming up with its story. But it's everybody who's touched the brand. So one of the things that we're doing is we're paying attention to three main verticals. One is obviously craftsmanship. Everything has to be exceptionally well done. So that is very important. The other bit is that it's an engineering feat. We're developing the world's largest sailing yacht. That in and of itself is quite challenging. We're restoring trains that are well over 100 years old and we need to make sure that they're very efficient.
On trains and yachts, we need to make sure that from a sustainability perspective, they make sense. And then there's obviously hospitality. And if you look at who else is competing in luxury, it's mostly the American brands. So we have to define what is going to be our manifestation of luxury hospitality as a European brand, as a French house. So everything is basically, we're in exploratory mode through a French lens with a brand that is very powerful. That again, is still relevant 140 years after its inception. And we need to do something that is going to be just as relevant for the next 100 plus years.
Patrick Whyte:
I think one of our core strengths has always been the ability to define those brands and make them European or French. And especially when you're comparing it to the US brands, it's a big strength. I'm curious to know what kind of markets you're looking at for that. Maybe the hotels for Orient Express, where can it go to? What are you thinking about? Is it European, is it global? What's the perspective there?
Gilda Perez-Alvarado:
So we have to have discipline. I think at cruising speed, we probably will have no more than somewhere between 20, 30 hotels. So they need to be collections. And what we're doing right now is following the original trail, if you will, the original journey of the Orient Express. That is sacrosanct, where we go afterwards, to be determined. But it needs to make sense. Now, every asset has to stand on its own, it has to have a story. In some instances we're looking at properties that are historic, built in 1400s, and others, it's new built.
But how do we make it very interesting so that you want to go there? And I think also what we're trying to do is if you start with the assets and then figure out, "Who am I going to sell this to?" That's not the right thing to do. We first have to define who our community is, who our tribe is. So that's what we're trying to figure out. What makes an Orient Express person an Orient Express person? Once we decide that, then we can design the products, the itineraries around what those people want, what that community wants.
Patrick Whyte:
And just finally, I'd like to get your take on balancing kind of nostalgia with a brand with kind of modernity. And you talked about the efficiency. That's going to be really tough, isn't it? How would you think about that?
Gilda Perez-Alvarado:
It is so hard. It really is hard. I think when we look back in history, one of the things, we've got to look at what the founder was focused on. It was an engineering feat when the trains were first launched, they were incredible. They were engineering marvels. He also was very much focused on hospitality, the art of travel, the art of the table, all of these things. So everything's actually quite relevant today. It was done with a very durable theory or thesis. We need to make sure that we do the same thing today. I think that's the hardest bit. If it was starting a brand from scratch, then fine. But a brand is not just a design-led issue, it's the story behind it. The DNA, how do we communicate, what do we do? What don't we not do? So all of that right now, that brand architecture is what we're working on. And at the same time, we're building our assets and we're going to be in the market in '25, '26, '27.
Patrick Whyte:
Fantastic. Gilda, thank you very much for your time.
Gilda Perez-Alvarado:
Thank you.