{"id":36091,"date":"2017-10-18T13:46:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T13:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/carlson-rezidor-s-simone-kuhn-shares-tips-for\/"},"modified":"2017-10-20T21:11:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T21:11:00","slug":"carlson-rezidor-s-simone-kuhn-shares-tips-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/carlson-rezidor-s-simone-kuhn-shares-tips-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlson Rezidor\u2019s Simone Kuhn shares tips for women to lead in hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Kigali, Carlson Rezidor manages both Radisson Blu Hotel &#038; Convention Centre Kigali and Park Inn by Radisson Kigali.<\/p>\n<p>Simone is among the continent\u2019s most successful women in the industry and was, last month, awarded in the Top Hoteliers category at the AKWAABA African Travel Market\u2019s African Travel 100 Women Awards as part of the Women in Tourism Programme.<\/p>\n<p>IGIHE talked with Simone on the sidelines of African Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) that ended in Kigali last week and revealed her experience of being a woman in hospitality and the global hotel group\u2019s expansion ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Simone has been making waves across Africa as a female leader in the business development sector within the tourism industry and consequently added three hotels to Carlson Rezidor\u2019s portfolio within the last 16 months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do not think there is any difference between a man and a woman in this industry. It is all about setting yourself in the right position at the right time and networking with the right people. I also think it is about trusting your gut,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Simone urged women in the industry to \u201chave a clear goal of what you want to achieve if you are working for a company, don\u2019t let anything turn you away from your focus. If you want to achieve a goal, you have to work hard to do so. It will not just simply be handed to you, make sure you surround yourself with the right people, trust your gut and move forward.\u201d<br \/>\n{{<br \/>\nGroup\u2019s expansion plans<br \/>\n}}<\/p>\n<p>Simone focuses on the expansion of four Carlson Rezidor\u2019s brands namely Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, Park Inn and Quorvus in 10 Anglophone countries including Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zambia and Namibia, among others, where the global hotel franchise has 28 hotels among the 80 hotels with 17,200 rooms in operation and under development the group currently runs on the continent.  The target is to have 125 hotels with over 23,000 rooms in Africa by 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Simone says that over the last three years, the group has signed a new hotel deal in Africa every 37 days and improved its hotel openings to open a new hotel every 60 days.  \u201cWe are looking at key markets like Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe&#8230; and will look into bringing new brands into the market in 2018,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<p>Having two hotels under Carlson Rezidor in Kigali, Simone finds Rwanda as a hub in East Africa for hospitality, saying \u201cEvery time I come here, I am amazed at the passion of the Rwandan business community. There is an opportunity to come together and grow the businesses here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Simone was literally born into the hotel industry as her father served as the General Manager for Sun International Hotels &#038; Casinos under Sol Kerzner for many years. Her career in the industry started in 2000 after being enrolled in an in-house training programme at the Savoy Hotel in London and later held management positions within hotel operations in South Africa and the United Kingdom within Relais &#038; Ch\u00e2teaux and Starwood.  <\/p>\n<p>In May 2011, Simone joined Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group which currently features a portfolio of 480 hotels with over 106,000 rooms in operation or under development in over 80 countries.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-22206 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/simone_kuhn_business_development_manager_at_carlson_rezidor_hotel_group_for_african_anglophone_countries-2.jpg\" alt=\"Simone Kuhn, Business Development Manager at Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group for African Anglophone countries\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-22207 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/park_inn_by_radisson_kigali_is_managed_by_carlson_rezidor_hotel_group_which_manages_80_hotels_in_africa_targetting_to_reach_125_hotels_by_2022-3.jpg\" alt=\"Park Inn by Radisson Kigali is managed by Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group which manages 80 hotels in Africa targeting to reach 125 hotels by 2022\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-22208 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/kigali_convention_centre_is_under_management_of_carlson_rezidor_hotel_group-3.jpg\" alt=\"Kigali Convention Centre is under management of Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being a woman in the male-dominated hospitality industry may become so challenging to many but it just takes setting a clear goal and focusing on it, according to Simone Kuhn, Business Development Manager at Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group for African Anglophone countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72],"byline":[2813],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-36091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","byline-jean-damour-mugabo-3"],"bylines":[{"id":2813,"name":"Jean d\u2019Amour Mugabo","slug":"jean-damour-mugabo-3","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2813,"name":"Jean d\u2019Amour Mugabo","slug":"jean-damour-mugabo-3","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36091"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=36091"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=36091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}