The put up Cornerstone International Group’s Florian Kittler: Future of hospitality depends on people, purpose, smarter technology appeared first on TD (Travel Daily Media) Travel Daily Media.
He believes genuine experiences, resilient enterprise fashions, and technology that helps human connection can strengthen Malaysia’s aggressive edge.
The hospitality business is altering shortly, and this transformation is credited to technology, shifting traveller expectations, sustainability, and expertise which might be all reshaping how companies compete.
These adjustments come at an necessary time for Malaysia because it prepares to welcome higher consideration by Visit Malaysia 2026.
For Florian Kittler, Managing Partner and Global Practice Leader for Hospitality, Travel & Leisure at Cornerstone International Group, the chance lies in understanding the place technology can add worth while holding folks on the coronary heart of hospitality.
Kittler boasts greater than 30 years of expertise in luxurious hospitality and government search, having labored with world manufacturers together with Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental, and Hyatt. Within his many years within the business, he has lived and labored throughout 10 cities within the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. This has given him an edge and broad data of cross-cultural views on hospitality and management.
He at the moment advises lodge administration corporations, property house owners, and traders on government search, management improvement, and the altering capabilities wanted throughout the business. Moreover, his experience extends into AI and digital-driven roles, supported by skilled teaching certifications and an AI Manager & Consultant designation. He headed HVS Executive Search’s Europe and APAC enterprise as effectively earlier than becoming a member of Cornerstone International Group.
As a returning decide for the TDM Travel Trade Excellence Awards 2026 – Malaysia, Kittler brings this mix of hospitality, management, and technology experience to the judging course of. He shared his insights on how Malaysian tourism can construct stronger experiences, put together for disruption, flip sustainability right into a aggressive benefit, and use AI with out shedding the human facet of hospitality.
As traveller expectations grow to be extra subtle, how ought to organisations rethink the best way they design experiences to stay aggressive?
For me, the most important change is that the visitor expertise not begins when somebody walks by the lodge entrance. It begins a lot earlier, after they uncover the property, have a look at the pictures, learn opinions, evaluate alternate options and resolve whether or not the expertise is value their money and time. And it continues after departure, by the reminiscences they take away and, more and more, the tales they share with others. Hotels subsequently want to take a look at the whole journey reasonably than concentrating virtually completely on what occurs through the keep.
There is one other necessary change. Travellers are more and more in search of one thing past a purposeful lodge expertise. They could also be in search of wellbeing, recognition, connection, discovery or just a way of place. That is especially related in Asia, the place travellers have gotten extra skilled and have an infinite vary of locations and merchandise to select from.
This is the place I consider Malaysia has an actual alternative.
A lodge that offers me a real sense of the area has one thing that can’t merely be copied by one other worldwide lodge model. A heritage property or an expertise rooted within the tradition and nature of Malaysia can create an emotional connection {that a} standardised product merely can not.
Technology has an necessary position to play right here, notably by knowledge and AI. But technology ought to assist us perceive and serve the visitor higher. It mustn’t make the expertise really feel extra automated. The finest operators might be those who mix technology with a powerful human connection.
What methods do you consider journey organisations ought to prioritise to arrange for future disruptions?
I believe we now have to just accept that disruption is not one thing that occurs each few years. It has grow to be half of the working surroundings.
We have seen a pandemic, geopolitical tensions, excessive climate, altering journey patterns and important forex actions. None of this stuff might be predicted completely. What organisations can do is grow to be higher at responding to them.
One space I’d focus on is diversification. If a lodge or vacation spot depends too closely on one supply market, one airline connection or one specific sort of visitor, it turns into weak in a short time when circumstances change
Malaysia has a great alternative right here as a result of of its home market, its regional connectivity and its place inside ASEAN. Developing a broader combine of markets offers operators extra choices when one market slows down.
The second space is pace of decision-making. Having knowledge is one factor; truly, utilizing it to make selections shortly is one other. Revenue administration, advertising and marketing, staffing and distribution all must grow to be extra responsive.
And lastly, I’d put extra emphasis on relationships. Strong relationships with airways, DMCs, journey companions, native communities and different locations might be extraordinarily priceless when circumstances change.
Resilience is subsequently not nearly having sufficient money within the financial institution. It can also be about having data, choices and relationships that mean you can react shortly.
How can tourism companies flip sustainability from a duty right into a aggressive benefit?
I believe the business has moved past the purpose the place sustainability can merely be introduced as a pleasant assertion in a brochure.
Guests, traders and staff more and more need to know what an organization is definitely doing.
For a lodge, that may imply sourcing extra merchandise domestically, lowering meals waste, managing power and water consumption correctly, defending the encircling surroundings or working meaningfully with native communities. These are operational selections, however they’ll even have a direct affect on the visitor expertise and the underside line.
Asia has a selected benefit right here as a result of a lot of the area’s tourism enchantment is related to nature, biodiversity and residing tradition. If we harm these issues, we’re successfully damaging the product we’re promoting.
I additionally anticipate technology to make sustainability claims extra clear. We are shifting in direction of a world the place will probably be more and more attainable to measure power consumption, water use, meals provenance and different environmental impacts rather more precisely.
That creates an fascinating shift. Sustainability turns into rather more credible when a visitor can see proof reasonably than merely being requested to belief a declare.
For me, the true aggressive benefit will come from operators who make sustainability half of how they run the enterprise, reasonably than treating it as a separate initiative.
The journey and hospitality business continues to evolve quickly. What main shifts do you consider will redefine the sector over the approaching years?
There are a number of, however I’d spotlight 5. First, AI. I don’t see AI as a passing development. It will more and more grow to be half of the fundamental infrastructure of hospitality — from income administration and forecasting to advertising and marketing, visitor communication and back-of-house processes. The query is not whether or not resorts will use AI, however how intelligently they’ll use it.
Second, wellness. Wellness has moved effectively past the standard spa idea. Guests are more and more all in favour of sleep, diet, health, psychological wellbeing and more healthy methods of travelling. This will grow to be related throughout extra segments of the market, not solely on the excessive finish.
Third, meals and beverage. F&B is more and more turning into half of a property’s identification reasonably than merely a further income division. In some resorts, the restaurant might be as necessary to the local people and the lodge’s repute because the rooms themselves.
Fourth, current belongings. I anticipate to see continued funding in repositioning and upgrading current resorts reasonably than merely constructing new ones. In many elements of Southeast Asia, building prices, land costs and the time required to develop new tasks make current belongings more and more enticing.
And fifth, loyalty. The conventional points-based loyalty mannequin is being challenged. I anticipate to see extra membership and subscription ideas that give folks entry to experiences, eating places, wellness, journey and way of life advantages reasonably than merely accumulating factors for a free evening.
But beneath all 5 of these developments is one difficulty that I believe deserves rather more consideration: folks.
The jobs in hospitality will change. Technology will take over extra repetitive duties, while the worth of individuals who can create experiences, resolve issues, construct relationships and lead groups will improve. That requires a unique method to expertise.
Looking forward, what expertise do you consider tomorrow’s hospitality leaders will want?
Leaders don’t essentially must grow to be technology consultants, however they do must grow to be technologically snug.
A basic supervisor who doesn’t perceive knowledge, analytics or what AI can and can’t do will more and more discover themselves at a drawback. They want to have the ability to ask the correct questions and problem the output reasonably than merely accepting no matter seems on a dashboard.
At the identical time, I consider the human facet of management will grow to be much more necessary.
If technology takes away some of the repetitive work, what stays is the work that requires judgement, empathy, cultural intelligence and human connection. Those usually are not smooth expertise. They are more and more exhausting business expertise.
Leaders additionally must grow to be extra commercially versatile. The conventional separation between operations, income, gross sales, advertising and marketing and folks is turning into much less helpful. A robust lodge chief wants to grasp how all of these components affect one another.
And there’s one other high quality I’d add: self-awareness.
The surroundings is altering too shortly for leaders to have all of the solutions. The skill to say, “I don’t know yet, but let’s work it out,” might be extra priceless than pretending to have certainty.
Across Asia, the leaders who impress me most have a tendency to mix sturdy native cultural understanding with a global perspective and a real curiosity about what’s altering round them.
As a returning decide for the TDM Travel Trade Excellence Awards 2026 – Malaysia, what enhancements or new developments are you hoping to see from this yr’s nominations?
As a decide, I all the time take pleasure in seeing what is going on throughout the business. This yr, I’d notably prefer to see extra proof behind the tales.
A superbly written submission is definitely pleasurable to learn, however what actually pursuits me is what occurred in consequence.
Did visitor satisfaction enhance? Did the enterprise obtain measurable business outcomes? Did a sustainability initiative truly cut back power or water consumption? Did an funding in folks result in higher retention or stronger inside profession improvement?
Those are the issues that make an entry stand out.
I’d additionally prefer to see the variety of Malaysian tourism mirrored extra strongly within the nominations. Malaysia’s hospitality story is way larger than Kuala Lumpur and the nation’s flagship luxurious resorts.
There is gigantic potential in Penang, Langkawi, Sabah and Sarawak, in addition to amongst impartial resorts, boutique operators and companies which might be constructing experiences round Malaysia’s heritage, meals, tradition and pure surroundings.
And I wish to see extra recognition for folks. Hospitality is finally a folks’s enterprise. Technology could make us extra environment friendly, but it surely can not change the significance of management, service tradition, expertise improvement and real engagement with native communities.
Finally, I’m notably all in favour of seeing how this yr’s nominees are approaching AI. I’m much less all in favour of an entry just because it says “AI” and rather more all in favour of what the technology has truly achieved.
Has it helped staff spend extra time with visitors? Has it improved decision-making? Has it eliminated pointless administration? Has it allowed the enterprise to personalise the expertise with out shedding the human contact?
That, to me, is the true take a look at.
Malaysia has an necessary yr forward, with Visit Malaysia 2026 placing the nation’s tourism business firmly within the regional highlight. I hope this yr’s awards present reveals not solely how a lot Malaysian hospitality has modified, but additionally the place it might lead.
For me, probably the most thrilling query shouldn’t be who’s following the long run. It is who helps to outline it.
The put up Cornerstone International Group’s Florian Kittler: Future of hospitality depends on people, purpose, smarter technology appeared first on Travel Daily Media.
Source link
