Gwangju International Center

 

My business Life Visiting 60 countries and Living in 10

 

Speaker: Michael Wilson (Australia)

Date: September 8th

Reviewer: Kang Yeon-ju

Proofreader: Eric Banuelos 

 

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rcbB_ofafx4

Watch the photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/117593299426331932940/20120908_MichaelRaymondWilson

 

  In this talk, Michael Wilson, the general manager of the Gwangju Holiday Inn, gave a speech about his business life. He has visited 60 countries and lived in 10 countries while doing his work so far.

 

He was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. When he was in Melbourne, he got an opportunity to work at a hotel located in New Zealand, so he lived there for 2 years. During that time, he was a hotel manager who was responsible for the front desk and many important duties. After working at the hotel, he went back to his hometown, and due to a suggestion from a travel company, he began travelling around 300 places over the world as a tour guide for 3 years. While he was working in India, he met his wife. They got married in California in the U.S and moved to San Francisco. He felt that visiting many places in various countries was not good for him and his wife, so he stopped travelling around. In 1981, however, he was offered to come back to his previous company. Accepting this proposal, he went to Greece. After Greece, he visited 11 countries to open hotel chains, and now, he works in Gwangju. Thanks to his business, he has spent time with a great variety of people, and it allowed him see the world through many different eyes. He believes the hotel business he has been doing is so fascinating and has no regrets becoming a hotel manager as his lifelong career. The hotel chains of the Holiday Inn have opened around 1000 hotels in the world. In fact, people thought Holiday Inn was a kind of Motel, not a five-star hotel, so the Holiday Inn conducted a campaign in order to upgrade its image with a new logo, etc. Staff of the Holiday Inn carried out a survey about the hotel to customers and got information on what customers were looking for. As a result of their efforts, Holiday Inn has met customers’ needs by offering big and comfortable rooms to them. When he came to Gwangju to open the Holiday Inn, he got a few troubles. He couldn’t speak Korean at all, had to employ staff, and even didn't have enough time for the hotel opening, which was a heavy task. After much effort, he finally opened a hotel in Gwangju. Michael said even though the hotel industry in Gwangju isn’t big now, it has the potential to grow.

 

The Holiday Inn will make an alliance with the DJ convention center to attract international buyers and enter a big market, and Mr. Wilson is sure the hotel will be in a high position in 2014.