Cities are being reimagined at a scale and speed that the world hasn't seen before, and no event fits closer to that transformation than Cityscape Global. I'm Pip Thompson, and welcome to the Cityscape Global podcast. November 16th to the 19th in Riyadh, the world's largest real estate event returns for 2026. And this year, the conversation centers around the future of cities. From investments and governance to smart infrastructure, human-centric designs, and the experiences that bring urban life to life. All of it unfolding against the backdrop of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which is one of the most ambitious national development programs that we've seen globally. My guest today knows this world from the inside. He oversees one of the most extensive real estate portfolios across the region, and is here with us to share his expertise on hospitality, and what exactly it reveals about a city's health. Dimitris Manikis, president of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts in the EMEA region, a very warm welcome to our podcast.
Hello, Pip. Lovely to be here.
First of all, let's start by you telling me which markets are surprising you, and which ones do you think are underperforming?
Well, I'll tell you what. I recently visited Armenia, Georgia, and the CIS region, and talking about markets that really not just surprised me, actually surprised a lot of people, is that whole CIS region. People are looking for new experiences, travelers are looking for new things to experience and to learn about other cultures. Those markets are completely taken me by surprise. Growth, planning, development, ideas, culture, food, wine. I mean, everything that is about the destination, these guys have actually managed to get it out in the open and introduce it to the world. So, that's a region that has really, really surprised me. What has surprised me the most is they've got a plan. Sometimes people do things but there's no plan and these guys have a plan. Equally, if you look at Saudi and Vision 2030, these guys definitely have a plan. I'm Greek, so I was always proud about Greece's heritage and about the 35 million tourists that we get every year in Greece and we never saw Saudi Arabia or the UAE or the GCC in general as a competitor. We've always thought that they are there but they're never going to compete with a unique destination like Greece and guess what? They are. They are competing and that was a huge surprise. Who would ever imagine that a few years back that Saudi Arabia would be one of the most highly desirable destinations from a tourism perspective and they would have a plan for tourism and hospitality to become a game-changer for their economy. Saudi Arabia was all about oil and gas and everything that has to do with energy and suddenly there's Saudi Arabia popping up as a major hospitality destination. 10 years ago, I would have lost a big bet if I would actually say that Saudi Arabia is going to be right there on the top and it has. So, big surprise but positive surprise. What surprised me the most is not how hospitality is going to become part of shaping the country's future and the contribution to GDP and all these wonderful things is how hospitality is actually changing the way that the society works. There are 100,000 Saudis at this point in time across the world being taught in universities and colleges about hospitality. I go to Riyadh, I go to Jeddah, I visit Saudi Arabia very often. The passion these young Saudis have about hospitality, it's something that makes me very proud and very hopeful about the future of the industry in that country. So, talking about surprises, that was one that I didn't see coming 10-15 years ago and I'm really glad that I'm still around to experience it.
Yeah, a very welcome surprise. Dimitri, I've read somewhere that you've said in the past that hospitality is no longer a luxury but a human right. Just expand on that a little bit more for us.
Well, yes, I did say that. I did say that because I've served this industry year to date about 36 years. And when people ask me, 'What do you do for a living?' I said, 'I work in the happiness business.' And I will never go back in denying that travel is now a human right. 1.8 billion people will travel for different reasons around the world this year. The first thing that we've done once we were allowed to open up from COVID was travel. Travel connects people. Travel is the industry of peace. It is the industry that helps us to understand cultures, meet other people, and kind of understand each other. So, for me, indeed, the best thing that travel does and hospitality does is actually bring humanity together. So definitely now, today, it is actually a human right.
And what does the scale of new hotel development, Dimitri, tell us about the long-term confidence in a city?
Look, you have to be very careful when you talk about cities. I'll give you a personal example. I was in Italy last week. One of these opportunities you get an opportunity to work, but at the same time take a few days off and explore the area. So, I went to Sicily. I visited a lot of beautiful cities from Syracuse to Taormina to Palermo. How can you actually take a city that has been there for 3,000, 2,000, 1,000 years and actually adapt it to modern hospitality. So, we have to distinguish between modern cities and historical cities that have been around for thousands of years. Unfortunately, in those historical cities, you've got some real problems that you cannot easily overcome. Narrow streets, infrastructure, buildings that have survived the test of time. So, we need to be very cautious when we talk about urban development and when we talk about hospitality in cities to distinguish between something that we can build from scratch and something that we need to maintain and we need to respect. That to me is the big difference between cities and hospitality. If you look at Rome, for example, if you look at Paris, if you look at Madrid even and cities like they've been there for hundreds of years, how can you actually live up to the fact that we now have challenges with overtourism, with water shortages, with energy, you don't have enough workers to actually clean the city. But then, if you have a completely new city, right? Something that you've built from scratch, you can actually advance and you can actually address all these issues. You use Saudi Arabia. Look at the new cities that they are creating. I used to say that Saudi Arabia is the Formula 1 of hospitality. Why? Because they deploy so many new technologies that in 5 years from today, those technologies will be mainstream in the rest of hospitality. But then, you've got cities that have existed for thousands of hundreds of years that you cannot actually do much. So, in the new cities, as you develop a master plan, I think hospitality is absolutely key because one of the things that you won't be able to experience is actually experience the transformation that is happening in those cities. On the other extent, where you have cities that have existed for decades or centuries, you've got to be careful in order to respect the local culture and respect the infrastructure as well. So, that's the main difference between the two.
Yeah, but in some cases hospitality is not involved at the planning stage when it comes to development. Why is that the wrong way to think about it?
Look, it used to be in the past more, but it's less today. I think the local authorities have realized the value that hospitality brings. And I think from a planning perspective, we're now as an industry involved more than the past. Obviously, again, you've got to be very careful. Look at what is happening in Barcelona, banning development of hotels. Look at what is happening in Amsterdam, they're putting the tourist tax to the extent that it's going to become very, very difficult for tourists to visit the city or it's going to become very expensive. These are the kind of things that hospitality is absent, and we need to be part of the conversation.
