Kickstarting her career in international sales with luxury hotel groups such as Starwood, InterContinental and Shangri-La, Michelle Papas sought to broaden her tourism industry experience with marketing roles for elite tourism attractions and within destination development and marketing. She oversees the Luxperience event and ensures that the event remains innovative for the carefully selected participants and provides opportunities to tap into emerging trends and luxury brands.

This week LATTE chats with acclaimed designer, Bill Bensley. Since 1984, Bensley has been designing resorts throughout Asia and the world. He was the Head Designer for an American company based in Singapore and Hong Kong until 1989 when he established his own business, Bensley, in Bangkok.

In the lead up to next week’s ILTM Asia Pacific in Singapore, LATTE chats with ILTM Portfolio Director, Alison Gilmore, to get her feedback on the event’s debut in the ‘Lion City’ in 2018, find out what delegates can expect at this year’s event and quiz her about the potential for other International Luxury Travel Market locations.

LATTE chats exclusively with David Brook, the Chief Executive Officer of The Ruby Collection, the hotelier that opened The Ruby Apartments on the Gold Coast in November last year. The Ruby Apartments is the first of four towers that will make up the massive project.

Last week LATTE sat down with the CEO of Hurtigruten, Daniel Skjeldam, to hear about the company’s growth aspiration in the Australian market, and learn why more and more Australians are choosing the Norwegian company to explore polar regions.

This week LATTE chatted with The Fullerton Heritage General Manager, Cavaliere Giovanni Viterale, who was in Australia from Singapore to oversee the commencement of exterior remediation work of the Sydney General Post Office. As part of The Westin Sydney, Fullerton Hotels & Resorts will take over ownership and management of the five-star hotel and heritage-listed GPO in mid-October 2019, at which time it will rebrand as The Fullerton Hotel Sydney.

This week LATTE chats with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ President, International Harry Sommer. Sommer was promoted to the position last year and is responsible for sales, marketing, public relations and office operations for Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises in all markets outside the United States and Canada.

This week LATTE chats with Helene Taylor, the brains behind A Force for Good Event, to gain a better understanding of the initiative, what it stands for, who is involved and how she hopes to take it to the next level. Helene is highly regarded within the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors, and when she’s not busy organising the speakers and fine-tuning the run sheet for the annual A Force for Good Event with her daughter, Whitney, she will often be quietly going about head hunting for large corporations for their next executive.

This week LATTE chats with Lisa Pile, Vice President Sales for Australia and New Zealand for Regent Seven Seas Cruises (RSSC). Lisa entered the cruise sector with RSSC in November 2015 after more than 24 years in the hotel industry, much of which was spent overseas and focused in the luxury space at a senior level with brands including Kempinski and most recently with Raffles Hotels & Resorts, where she held the position of Executive Director of Sales and Marketing – Global, based out of Singapore.

Dudley is the founder and managing director of the Ecruising group of companies which was established in 2000. By 2005, Ecruising had a portfolio of luxury cruise and land tours to some of the most remote destinations and major sporting events around the world. The itineraries outgrew the ecruising.travel brand, and a new luxury brand, Latitude 33, was born, dedicated to providing immersive experiences and effortless travel.

In this week’s LATTE one-on-one interview, we speak exclusively with the CEO of AccorHotels Asia-Pacific, Michael Issenberg. Issenberg’s full-time hospitality career spans more than three decades and began in 1981 at the Westin St Francis Hotel in San Francisco. He has held senior positions across hotel management and property investment including Director of Development for Merlin Properties and was the CEO of Mirvac Hotels, a brand which joined the AccorHotels portfolio in late 2011.