Ten days ago I had the pleasure of attending the 24th European Hotel Investment Conference in London and the title of the conference was: 'Brighter skies ahead?'.

400 of the leading figures of the global lodging industry met and exchanged views on the coming year. I had some interesting insights on the global economy and listened to some very meaningful panels. What I loved was to listen to the panel moderated by Sir David Michels.

Sir David Michels, one of the world's leading hospitality leaders and a brilliant moderator, was moderating a panel titled:  'European CEO Weather report'.

Sir David opened the panel by referring to an earlier panel titled ' Global Barometer – the view from the top' moderated by Mr. Nick van Marken – Head – Advisory, Travel, Hospitality  & Leisure Deloitte  . The Panelists in this panel were: Mr. Denis Hennequin – The Chairman and CEO of Accor and Mr. Christopher Nassetta – The President and CEO of Hilton Worldwide.

Sir David's remark was something like this:

"We listed before to two of the top hotel chains CEO's, each talking about the additional number of hotels and hotel rooms they plan to add globally to their portfolios, Is it only size that really matters…?"

This was a provocative and witty remark which was aimed to open a discussion in his panel but when you think deep about this remark you have to ask yourself some other relevant questions such as: can we really tell what the brand differentiation is and brand values of each and every brand? 

Accor runs 12 brands divided into International Luxury, Upscale, and Midscale in addition to sub-brands within those brands.  Hilton Worldwide runs 10 hotel brands. IHG operates 9 hotel brands and Starwood Hotels and Resorts has under its brand umbrella 9 brands.

A few months ago 4Hoteliers portal posted a very interesting article titled: ' The Power of a Brand or Successful Differentiation written by Dietmar Kielnhofer Ph.D - See link in the right column.

After you read it, ask yourselves if you could actually say what differentiates brands such as Waldorf Astoria from St. Regis? Autograph Collection from the Luxury collection? Marriott core brand  from Hilton core brand?

If you find it difficult, ask yourselves what do your potential customers know?

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Joseph - Yossi - Fischer is the owner's representative and Executive Board Member IDB Tourism Holdings Leisure, Travel & Tourism industry.

IDB Tourism Holdings is the tourism arm of IDB Group, Israel's largest mixed use holding conglomerate - IDB Group. IDB Tourism consists of a Travel Agency chain called Diesenhaus-Unitours, Clal Aviation, NATOUR-UNITAL Wholesale, Diesenhaus Wholesale, Diesenhaus Incoming Travel, Israir Airlines, Yossi Tours, Open Sky - Airline GSA Representation The annual turnover of IDB Tourism is over US$ 800 millions which makes it one of Israel's largest Travel & Tourism groups.