The Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. management team, including CEO Frits van Paasschen, will operate the company from Dubai for the next month to highlight the region as one of the hotel conglomerate’s fastest-growing markets.
The monthlong relocation of Starwood’s global headquarters from Stamford to Dubai comes after a similar program to temporarily transplant the leadership team in China in June 2011 was met with success.
“With 80 percent of Starwood”™s pipeline coming from rapidly growing markets, it is simply not possible to lead a truly global business from a boardroom in Connecticut,” said van Paasschen in a prepared statement. “Rising wealth and ever greater global connectivity are creating a once-in-a-lifetime growth opportunity for our business ”“ by fueling new demand, changing travel patterns, and entirely new travel markets.”
Dubai, he said, “epitomizes this changing face of travel.”
As part of the relocation, which extends through April 5, more than 200 executives and hotel general managers from the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America will work from Dubai, which is nine time zones and almost 7,000 miles from Stamford.
