Hotel Spotlight / Millennium Seoul Hilton New General Manager well-traveled, world-class businessman Eric M. Swanson is the new general manager of the Millennium Seoul Hilton Hotel. He assumed his new position this year on the 18th of July. He comes to Korea with over twenty years of hotelier experience. He began his career with the Ritz-Carlton corporate opening team in the United States, and has since moved on to be a General Manager at the Ritz-Carlton, Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt; the Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Grove, Miami; The Leela Palace Kempinski Hotel in Bangalore, India; and the Marco Polo Parkside in Beijing, China. Mr. Swanson has strong ties to South Korea. From 1996 to 1999, he was the Executive Assistant Manager and Director of Sales and Marketing at the Ritz-Carlton, Seoul. Also, both his mother and his wife are of Korean descent. On the occasion of taking office as GM of the hotel, The Korea IT Times is pleased to hear about his management philosophy ...Ed. Q: What do you think about the Korean hotel industry at this point You already have lots of experience in Korean industry right A: That's such a difficult question to answer. Specifically I think that Korea as a whole is in a kind of a state of change, fluctuation, if you talk about specifically IT industry, is that right The IT industry chips and research and development are still on high priority for the government and for industry however I don't think that they've remained competitive with the rest of the world. I just came from Bangalore, India and it is considered the IT capital of India in terms of research development and business process outsourcing. So I think that BP or development is not something that could happen in Korea, however research and development in terms of data mining, storage, should be I think increased. I think that Korean intellectual power is currently underutilized and I would like to see companies like Samsung and SK step up their research and development efforts in order to remain competitive, and I think that will be the secret to success for the IT industry in Korea. Q: Please tell me about what do you think of the solution to improve Korean hotel industry competitively A: Yeah, I think you're talking specifically for the Korean market. If you would ask me specifically about my hotel, I can tell you where I'd like to see my hotel in the next 3 to 5 years. I think that our hotel requires some soft good renovations to upgrade the existing facilities. I also think that some of the basic IT services such as wireless connectivity, and a possibility of kiosk check-in, in the main lobby. Fully utilizing IT-enabled solutions to make our back offices more efficient should be added. I think in general the Korean hotel industry in terms of its competitiveness to other major cities or countries in the world they're equal. I would even go so far as to say that even the service standards are at a higher level in terms of the soft goods, the people, and how they approach service. My experience with the Korean employees is that they are extremely dedicated and extremely disciplined. And you will find in other countries, such as the middle east, and even in America the employees cannot be as disciplined and cannot be as featurefocused. That's a primary competitive advantage for the Korean hotel market. Q: Don't you think it odd that there are many five star resort hotels What do you think about the Korean hotel evaluation system A: Well I think that there's still enough room in Korea and specifically Seoul to grow in the five star market. Primarily because the international business traveler is looking for a five star experience. There is room for 3 star or service apartments, that type of product, however I still believe that when an international traveler comes to a country that they've never visited before they want a level of service that you can only get at a five star property. Look for example there are projects coming up in Youido, two or three hotels, JW Marriott, Crown Holiday and Crown Plaza. Those developers see that there's still room to put more room and inventory into the city. You know a city that's doing 78-80% occupancy still has room for more competition. Q: But some visitors from another country are usually disappointed when they see a five star resort hotel in Korea, they think it's too old and they don't have a good impression, and they don't understand why this hotel is listed as 5 star. A: Well, the rating system, I can't really comment on that, that's something that maybe should evolve, but that's a KNTO issue that has to be addressed at the Korean level. But those aren't the comments that I get, I mean I can hear customers that come to Korea and say that the facility might be old but that the service is still five star. I wouldn't know what their expectation is. If you look at our product, our product is old but however it was designed by one of the finest designers in the world. If anything this is an architectural landmark in Seoul Korea. If you look at the Grand Hyatt, if you look at the JW, they're all cookie-cutters of other Hyatt's and JWs around the world. So for somebody to say that its not five star I don't quite understand that comment. Q: What do you think about the general Korean residence level while they are accommodated in your hotel comparing with the general world standard Do you think their level is higher or lower A: Actually, what you'll find in Korean hotels is a higher percentage of usage by high level people within the community. You don't normally find such a high mix, and I'll give you a clear example. In our hotel, our food and beverage revenues are about 80-85% supported by local Koreans who are demographically speaking anywhere between 35 to 65, extremely wealthy, well-educated, chaebol level, professor level, professional level, that come to our hotel. In the United States its more, depending on the hotel, but the majority of the hotels are more focused on business, so a lot of their food and beverage outlets are supported more by the businesspeople. Here its more of a social family gathering. A lot of business too, however primarily all Korean. Q: What do you think is the most important qualification for a hotelier in the world A: I think one needs to be open-minded, one needs to be driven to succeed, one should be confident in themselves in terms of their management style and they should clearly understand what they bring to an organization. And I think utmost is that you have to love what you're doing, you have to really enjoy it, and you have to just work at it every day. I think that's the secret of a great hotelier. And at the same time to remain humble. Because at the end of the day we're all servants. I'm a servant. I'm a highly paid, well-dressed servant here to serve my guest. Even at my level I must also remember that. Q: Do you have any mentor or role-model in the hospitality industry A: Oh absolutely, there are so many of them for me, but I'd say Horshultzie who is the ex-president of Ritz-Carlton was my primary role-model in the hospitality industry. And then there are others, Ziggie Brauer, mostly German guys, Rader Witwer, who was president of Compinsky currently, my last employer was an Indian guy whose name was Captain Christian Anayer, and he developed really top-class luxury hotels in India, and I was fortunate enough to work with him for four years and open one of his beautiful palace hotels. And this guy is just what I talked about, he's driven, he's passionate, he loves what he's doing, he's 82 years old he's still working. But when he builds something the most important thing is that there's quality in that. So he understands that if you want a truly world-class product you must spend money to make that. You can't do it halfway, you either go all the way or you don't go there. And that's his philosophy. That's also my philosophy because he's also one of my great mentors. Last but not least, my mother I think. A very strong lady.