Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts

Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts

Type	Private
Industry	Hospitality, Tourism
Founded	Zurich, Switzerland (1973)
Founder	Ueli Prager
Headquarters	Baar, Switzerland
Area served	Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia
Key people	Olivier Chavy, CEO
Products	Business/Leisure Hotels, Resorts
Revenue	CHF978.800 Million (2015)
Number of employees	>16,000
Website	http://www.movenpick.com

Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel Accra, Ghana

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts (German pronunciation: [ˈmœːvənˌpɪk]; English /ˈmuːvənˌpɪk/) is a hotel management company headquartered in Baar, Switzerland. They are owned by Mövenpick Holding (66.7%) and the Kingdom Group (33.3%). They operate more than 80 properties, including hotels, resorts and Nile cruisers, with another 30 resorts planned or under construction across the Middle East and Asia.^[1]

The hotel chain serves 5.8 million people per year, and in 2003 was named the “fastest growing hotel chain in the Middle East” by The World Travel Market.^[2]

CEO Jean-Gabriel Pérès left the company in early 2016.^[1] His replacement, Olivier Chavy, took over in September 2016.^[3]

Mövenpick Group

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts traces its roots back to the privately-owned Mövenpick Group, which was founded by the late Ueli Prager in 1948 when he opened his first restaurant in Zurich. The name was apparently inspired by the feeding action of a gull (in German, a Möwe) and how its simple movements reflected the restaurant’s theme of food served as quickly as possible.^[4]

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts

The official launch of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts was marked by the opening of two hotels at Zurich-Airport and Zurich-Regensdorf. Expansion beyond Europe started in 1976 with the opening in Cairo of the Mövenpick Hotel Jolie Ville. Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts were among the first companies to operate hotels under management contracts, which helped allow rapid growth. Expansion continued through the 1980s into Egypt, with the chain’s first cruise ship (HS Radamis) beginning operations in 1991.^[5]

New expansions into Africa and the Middle East saw “pilgrim hotels” opened in Madinah in Saudi Arabia, and a period of hotel renovation and portfolio consolidation began. Rapid expansion continued through the early 2000s.^[6]

A strategic partnership with Green Globe was announced in 2010, beginning a drive towards sustainability with a specific focus on the travel and tourism industry across all Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts properties.^[7]

Certification and awards accompany further expansion into India, the Philippines, Singapore,^[8] and Ghana (2011^[9]). New hotels opened in China in 2013, and Pakistan in 2014, and Bangladesh in 2015.^[10]

As of 2015, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has 56 properties that are Green Globe certified: the highest number of certifications currently attained by any one hotel company.^[11]

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