3 Questions to Hubert Joly, Chairman of the Carlson Group

Are you announcing that you are ahead of schedule with your Ambition 2015 plan?
Yes, Carlson will reach 1,500 hotels in 2015, compared with 1,070 at the end of 2010. The 200,000-room mark has already been passed, with 164,000 rooms in operation and 40,000 in the pipeline. We are accelerating the development of the Country Inns & Suites and Park Inn by Radisson brands around the world, with a focus on emerging countries. These countries account for 60 % of new hotel signings, whereas they currently represent only 20 % of our portfolio. 19 hotels will open in India in 2011 and a further ten or so are under development in China, where Carlson only has 10 properties.

What about Radisson?
Our priority is to roll out Radisson Blu in the United States. Two openings are planned, in Chicago this autumn and Minneapolis in 2013. Carlson is not hesitating to invest in this development, so that the brand is present in New York, Boston, Washington and San Francisco. Another objective is to renovate hotels in order to bring them up to the new standards defined by the group, and to remove from the portfolio those that are no longer up to standard. 500 million dollars have already been committed out of the 1.5 billion that Carlson and the owners have announced they are investing.

What are your plans for France?
Rezidor, the Carlson subsidiary which operates our brands in Europe, has 23 hotels in France and several projects, including a Park Inn near the future stadium in Lille (2012) and Radisson Blu hotels in Porticcio (2012) and in the former law courts in Nantes (2013). Carlson has also just launched Club Carlson, its new loyalty programme, where points can be spent in hotels and at a number of partners.