Kempinski Hotels' Jordan area director and general manager of Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea Henk Meyknecht.
Dutch born hotelier Henk Meyknecht recently became Kempinski Hotels’ area director for Jordan, as well as general manager at the country’s Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea:
WHAT INITIALLY INSPIRED YOU TO GET INTO THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY?
My family owns and operates a small luxury hotel in The Netherlands. Therefore, I grew up surrounded by hospitality, and I was involved in the business from a very young age. It was clear for me that I wanted to graduate from hotel school in order to return home and join our family business. After completing my formal education, it was my intention to work for a decade or so abroad before returning home. However, the excitement of travelling, meeting different cultures and exploring other cuisines made me constantly delay my decision to return and today I can look back on a career spanning 25 years across Europe, Middle East, North America and the Far East.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY?
First of all, I believe that the entire HR cycle must be in tip top shape to attract and keep professionals. This includes recruitment, hiring, on-boarding, training, performance management and rewarding. Talented managers attract strong supervisors, who in turn motivate a productive workforce. My second core mindset is about constant change as nothing is permanent. My leadership style is about enforcing renewal, allowing creativity and implementing innovation.
| Advertisement |
WHAT PLANS DO YOU HAVE FOR KEMPINSKI'S JORDAN HOTELS?
We are putting a lot of time and energy into developing a fresh and exciting digital marketing strategy for the next few years, as I want to make sure that the Kempinski brand is well represented in all digital channels, including the main information, tourism, traffic and news portals. Apart from technical upgrades, we are also launching the Dead Sea Arts Festival, whereby we invite domestic and regional artists to display contemporary works of art, not only art in terms of paintings or sculpture, but also art as dance, film, music and even baking bread.
WHAT ASPECT OF YOUR NEW POSITION ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT?
As an area director I am involved in many different hotels, each having its own unique opportunities and challenges. Our Kempinski Amman is a strong corporate hotel, while Kempinski Aqaba has a great beach front location where international leisure guests enjoy themselves. Next year we are opening new properties in Lebanon and Iraq, as well as focusing on other developments in the region.
WHAT NEW INITIATIVES ARE YOU PLANNING TO INTRODUCE?
We are developing a campaign called “Pride of Jordan”, whereby we encourage our culinary team to use home grown ingredients. Furthermore, we are one of the few Kempinski hotels with its own, unique line of exclusively designed bathroom amenities based on Dead Sea minerals. Domestic ingredients are used in our hand soap, shower gel, shampoo and even a special body mud scrub. I enjoy working on the quality initiatives. It empowers our employees and makes them proud to be part of upgrading our service standards by using home grown products. It is part of my aim to always combine European hospitality with the finest domestic ingredients.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
