|
| |
Bert “Bow-Thai” van albeek has
been an Hotelier for 40 years
and Marketer of Tourism for 30
years, a Motivator and a Master of
Disaster for 20 years and a lecturer for
15 years.
After completing the Hotel School in The
Hague, the first part of his career was
accomplished in Europe working in
operations and later sales and then
marketing positions in Hilton, Inter-
Continental, Canadian Pacific and
Sheraton Hotels around Europe.
The second part started with his arrival
in Thailand in 1985, where he
spearheaded the successful marketing
efforts to reposition the Royal Orchid
Sheraton. He also became a member of
the Marketing Committee of TICA
(Thailand Incentive & Convention
Association), and was the Founder and
first President of the Thailand Chapter
of SITE (Society of Incentive Travel
Executives).
In 1988 he was appointed as Sheraton's
Vice President Marketing for the Middle
East, an area that covered 5 time zones
and 26 hotels. |
|
During this tenure he had
to face the marketingopportunities of the
Gulf Crisis and developed the “Back To
Normal” concepts for both the Sheraton
Hotels in the area and for the Egyptian
General Authority for the Promotion of
Tourism.
These recovery programs were
launched 2 weeks after the Gulf Crisis
was resolved.
In 1991 he returned to Thailand and
joined Siam Express as Executive Vice
President in charge of the International
Division and in 1992 he was again
elected as SITE Chapter President, he
was also awarded the EIBTM/ITME
Incentive Travel Personality Award for
the Asian region and became once more
a Board Member of TICA and Chairman of TICA's Marketing Committee.
Once again he had to face the
opportunities of a crisis, in May 1992,
and as Chairman of the TAT Marketing Working Group for the 1992 Recovery
Committee developed the “The World,
Our Guest”- campaign.
From 1994 until 1996, he was Country
Director Thailand for Motivation Asia and
from 1998 to 2000 he returned to the
hotel industry as General Manager of
the 500-room Siam City Hotel in
Bangkok.
He is now Managing Director of The
Winning Edge, a boutique consulting
company, offering marketing audit, sales
and service training and consultancy
services to the hospitality, car and
pharmaceutical industries.
His expertise is well-known in the Asian
Travel Industry.
He has trained hundreds
of participants together with TICA, SITE
and PATA and through individually
developed courses and he is still deeply
involved in Asia's Tourism Industry. He
is also well-known as a speaker at many |
conference and seminars, with his
motivational and humorous manner of
presentation. In November 2002 he completed, in
cooperation with PATA, an information
brochure on Risk & Crisis Management:
“Expect the Unexpected”. Based on this
publication he has conducted many
seminars on Crisis Prevention and
Management in all of Asia for
organizations like APETIT, China
Outbound Forum, ICCA, IT&CMA,
HotecAsia, UNESCAP and Tourism
Malaysia, ASEAN Hotel Association and
HICAP in Hong Kong.
In 2006 he also completed PATA's first
educational & training module on the
same subject and based on that
publication he has lately conducted
seminars in Barcelona, Beijing, Boston,
Hong Kong, Kathmandu, Macau,
Singapore and Taiwan.
These experiences culminated in the
assignment by Thailand's Ministry of
Tourism, Office of Tourism Development,
to design and develop The Road Map
to the National Plan for Risk & Crisis
Management in Tourism and train the
Hospitality and Tourism Industry
accordingly.
In addition to those activities, he is
lecturing the “next generation” at
universities in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and
Phuket, as well as at the “Akademie fuer
Touristik” in Freiburg, Germany and the
NHTV University in the Netherlands. He
is regularly invited to speak on leadership,
crisis management and marketing &
sales subjects during industrial and
academic conferences.
His company, The Winning Edge, is
presently handling projects in China
(PRC), Taiwan, Indonesia, Macau,
Malaysia, Pakistan, Vietnam and, of
course, Thailand. |
