President of Europe, Middle East, Eurasia & Africa, WYNDHAM HOTELS & RESRTS
President Dimitris Manikis, Wyndham Hotels: Tech, AI & The Future of Hospitality | WTM London
President Dimitris Manikis, Wyndham Hotels: Tech, AI & The Future of Hospitality | WTM London Dimitris Manikis, President for ...
About Dimitris Manikis
In a July 2026 appearance on the Cityscape Global Podcast, Dimitris Manikis described hospitality as "the fastest-moving barometer of a city's ambition" and stated that "travel is the industry of peace." He said that Saudi Arabia has emerged as an "unlikely challenger" to established tourism destinations, comparing the country to "the Formula 1 of hospitality" due to its rapid deployment of new technologies. Manikis noted that he would have "lost a bet" 10 to 15 years ago if someone had predicted Saudi Arabia would become a major competitor in regional hospitality, but expressed excitement about the country's development under Vision 2030. Manikis also discussed the role of hospitality in urban planning, arguing that the industry is now more involved in the planning stage than in the past. He cited Barcelona's hotel development ban as an example of the need to balance growth with local culture and infrastructure. Drawing on 36 years of experience across the CIS region, the Gulf, and the Mediterranean, Manikis said he recently visited Armenia, Georgia, and the CIS region, and emphasized the importance of respecting local culture in cities that have existed for centuries.
Transcript (9 segments)
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Dimitris Manikis0:14
My name is Dimitris Manikis and I'm the president for Wyndham Hotels and Resorts for Europe, Middle East, Eurasia, and Africa. I'm here at the World Travel Market. First day, it's amazing. You asked me earlier what I think of the industry and what I think of this event. It's so beautiful to see so many professionals. It's so beautiful to see our industry coming back with full force. It's so interesting to see so many new ideas, new innovations, new technology, but at the same time going back to basics as well. There's a lot of discussions about technology at World Travel Market today. There's a lot of new startups and new ideas, creative innovation, but at the same time there's a lot of conversation about going back to basics. So how do we combine technology with what hospitality stands for, which is the guest? I'm very excited to be here. I'm very excited to see so many friends, make new friends, existing colleagues, and just have a good time. At Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, we're always present. We always come here. It's a great opportunity for us to see our partners and it's a great opportunity for our team members as well to realize the depth and the size of this industry. So it's going to be an exciting couple of days.
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Interviewer1:32
And what are your current expansion plans in the luxury market and which new properties or regions are?
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Dimitris Manikis1:38
At Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, we are very well known for being the leaders in economy and midscale. It's very interesting to see us expanding into the upper upscale segment. I don't think that we can claim that we will play in the luxury space, but definitely the midscale and the upper upscale is the place that we want to be, especially in the international divisions. We've done a huge leap of faith, I would say, to actually move to upper upscale and different class of properties. Ramada, one of our most popular brands, is 77 years old today. It's a legacy brand, it's a beautiful brand, people love it. How do you keep Ramada exciting and how do you keep Ramada relevant? I think one of the key things that we take out of this event is we meet with so many different people and we understand what is relevant for the audience today, and then we go back and say, okay, we've got a great base, we've got brands, how do we make them more relevant to today's consumers? That's what we're looking to do in the next couple of days.
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Interviewer2:51
And how do you think the consumers change their perspective in this?
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Dimitris Manikis2:57
Look, the consumers change constantly. Consumers are different today from what they were before COVID. Consumers next year are going to be different from what they were this year because technology changes everything. The way we book, the way we interact, the way we learn about our destination. A lot of people are talking about how AI is going to impact the way that we choose travel. I look at my personal experience. I had my holidays in August. I went to ChatGPT and said, 'Build me a five-day itinerary.' And it did. And I didn't even question if it was right or wrong. So the more trust we've got into technology, the more as consumers we're going to be influenced in changing our travel habits. And this is where all of us, and obviously for Wyndham, how do we actually understand this? How do we make sure that we're not left behind by this huge revolution that is happening in our industry? Walking around here, you can actually see the vibe and see the change coming.
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Interviewer4:05
And do you think artificial intelligence is positive or negative? It's going to be whatever we make it or we ask it to be?
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Dimitris Manikis4:15
If we allow it to be negative, it will be negative. But if we control it, if we use it to actually enhance what is the basic rule of hospitality, human connection, then it's going to be hugely positive. A lot of people are asking me, is it going to replace jobs in hospitality? No, it won't replace jobs. It will make an extremely important step into making existing jobs far more creative and far more important for the future. But it's not going to replace jobs. The human connection and the human element is still the most important thing in hospitality. Robots and bots will not replace that.
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Interviewer4:57
And what strategies are being implemented to attract more international guests, maybe with artificial intelligence?
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Dimitris Manikis5:04
Look, you got to put your name out. You got to make sure that you are known. You got to make sure that people know your brands. You got to make sure that people know your business. You got to be visible. I think visibility today is absolutely key. If I look at my own home, my kids, if you don't track their attention in the first five seconds, they lose interest. So those five to ten seconds are going to be one of the most critical things that every business needs to do. How do you make sure that your consumer stays on your page, on your app, or whatever for more than five seconds? That's going to be the thing that is going to change our lives going forward. Content, information sharing, relevance, and more importantly, how do you excite your guests? How do you make them stay for more than five seconds and place a book instead of just move to another site? That's going to be one of the biggest challenges we're going to have in the future.