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Dimitris Manikis

President of Europe, Middle East, Eurasia & Africa, WYNDHAM HOTELS & RESRTS

Search every verified Dimitris Manikis interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Dimitris Manikis, President of Europe, Middle East, Eurasia & Africa at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, has recently discussed the company’s expansion strategy in India, describing the country as entering a "golden decade" for hospitality. In an October 2026 interview, he outlined plans to grow in major metro cities after focusing on Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, and mentioned exploring branded residences and partnerships with established developers for mid-scale projects. He also commented on India’s tourism potential, noting that the country receives relatively few international visitors compared to its population and suggesting that greater inbound travel could be managed. At an industry session in October 2026, Manikis addressed challenges facing the hospitality sector, including labor shortages and the need to improve the industry’s narrative. He stated that hospitality companies are "losing the narrative" to consumers and local communities, and criticized the treatment of interns, saying that many graduates leave the industry because they are not treated with respect during their internships. He also emphasized the importance of making travel accessible to the growing middle class, describing travel as something that should be "inclusive not exclusive." In earlier appearances, he discussed the company’s resilience during crises, its growth in markets such as India and the CIS, and the launch of the Dolce Nova brand extension.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“I'm going to make a controversial statements. I think you guys are very you're very selfish. You keep India to yourself. Because in my country Greece, we are 9 million people. We made that clear. 9 million. How many millions of tourists we get every year? 35 million. You are 1.4 billion people and you get 10 million tourists including the NRIs. This is very selfish. This is very selfish. But can we manage even half t”

“A tier 2 city here in this country is a metro in many other countries. My country, the country I come from is Greece. 9 million people. 9 million people is a tier 2 city in your India. So, so for us coming from Europe, we never thought Tier 2 cities to be a real to two tier two cities. Factor is just the population infrastructure infrastructure plan. When your government came out with an infrastructure plan of what t”

“I work a lot with universities in Europe, with The Hague, with Lausanne. You know what is the number one reason why people don't stay in hospitality? Because we treat them badly when they are interns. We get these young kids with dreams. We get them in our hotels and we give them a shitty time. Why should they stay? 60% of graduates of business schools do not stay because we treat them like when they are interns. Why”

“The biggest problem we all and the industry needs to wake up is we're losing the narrative. The narrative is not with us anymore. The narrative is with the consumer and the local communities. I think the biggest challenge we're going to have is not adapting AI. Actually, to be fair, I'm an old guy, so I thought AI was all-inclusive and then I realized it's not all-inclusive. It's actually something else. So, I'm real”

“I believe that travel should be inclusive not exclusive. Travel shouldn't only fit a certain population or a certain part of the population. I think luxury serves an amazing purpose and it's inspirational but I believe at the same time that the middle class which is growing around the world actually might not necessarily afford luxury but that shouldn't prevent them from travel. I think we should make travel accessib”

“Look, we are one of the world's largest hospitality companies. We've got 8,800 hotels in 101 countries. We're predominantly franchise. So, we are 95% franchise. The challenge with Wyndham is that a lot of people know our brands, but they don't know the mother company. And that's why in the last few years, we're actually growing a lot of our namesake brands. So, the Wyndham Grands, the Wyndham Gardens, we have brands ”

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