LUXURY UNMATCHED
With multiple distinctions, award-winning facilities, and the best beach in Portugal under its belt, Pine Cliffs offers an experience like no other for both leisure and business travelers.
BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Schoen graduated from the Munich Hotel School and has worked for Starwood/Marriott for 25 years. He is currently the complex general manager of Pine Cliffs, a Luxury Collection Resort, in Algarve, Portugal. Until May 2016, Schoen was area manager Egypt as well as general manager of the Sheraton Cairo, where he supervised 14 business units with 4,750 rooms, covering the Sheraton, Le Méridien, Westin, W, and St. Regis brands. Prior to that, he was area manager Poland and general manager of the Sheraton Warsaw Hotel for five years, and complex general manager of the Luxury Collection Hotels Imperial and Bristol in Vienna for two and a half years. He also completed various executive assignments with Starwood in Scotland, Africa, and Bulgaria.Serving both business and leisure travelers, how do you position Pine Cliffs Resort within the hospitality industry?
Looking back at its 25 years of history, Pine Cliffs Resort was positioned as a leading destination for the leisure and family market, also due to the continuous investment and enhancement made to the resort. These efforts have been recognized, and several distinctions were awarded throughout the years, the most recent being the World's Leading Luxury Leisure Resort, Portugal's Leading Family Resort, and Portugal's Best Spa Resort. Pine Cliffs, with its wide range of facilities, is the perfect destination for individuals and family leisure travelers who are looking for well-being and lifestyle programs, offered at our brand-new Serenity Spa. It has received recognition worldwide and was recently awarded with the Best Luxury Wellness Spa Award in Europe. Due to the recent expansion of the property and the launch of two new products—Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites and Pine Cliffs Gardens—we are now a global player in the corporate and incentive market, benefitting from the global sales offices and loyalty programs for individuals and corporate accounts. In addition, Pine Cliffs Resort is the only Marriott property with these extensive and diversified facilities in Europe, which makes us unique.
What are your unique offerings, and how can people utilize your premises for special events?
The resort's location is unsurpassed, standing on a spectacular clifftop overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. To top that off is the beauty of the hotel's impressive Portuguese architecture with a perfect combination of the Algarvian and Arab influences. Another unique feature is our beautifully manicured gardens, which offers a great space for special events such as weddings or product launches, namely top of the range bikes and cars. Guests can also enjoy a tennis match at the well-known Annabel Croft Tennis Academy as well as our gold course, which is amongst top 50 in Europe, or enjoy a stunning beach that was elected by TripAdvisor users as the best beach in Portugal and the 12th-best in the world. For our fit-fans, the fitness center “Pine Cliffs Goes Active" offers a range of individual and family activities with personalized service enabling guests to recharge energies.
What is the breakdown of guests at Pine Cliffs Resort?
Pine Cliffs benefits from a diverse geographical source of business, with the main feeder markets being the UK, Germany, and other European countries. There has been an increased interest out of Russia, the Middle East, and emerging markets, which have also played an important role in the local market over the recent years. There is a great diversity geographically in terms of the types of leisure guests. We can see families enjoying the resort as well as more leisure travelers with interest in sports, well-being, and lifestyle culture. In the business segment, the Algarve remains a unique destination either for incentives or using the destination for product launch events.
What is your assessment of the tourism sector in the country and of the hotel market in the Algarve specifically?
Portugal will continue its healthy growth process, mainly in cities such as Lisbon and Porto, as it enjoys a privileged position among the top three safest countries in the world. In 2018, a similar trend is expected in the Algarve region, but with a softer demand growth because competitive markets such as Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, and Greece are gaining share of the global tourism market.
What are your main priorities for 2019?
Considering the geographical diversity, we strive to improve our offers to the various demanding holidaymakers coming to the Algarve. We will continue to focus our position in the market with the newest additions in the resort—Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites and Pine Cliffs Gardens. Together with our parent company, United Investments (Portugal), S.A., we will further enhance the overall existing facilities that will contribute to reinforcing the prestigious image of the resort. ✖
LUXURY UNMATCHED
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Focus: Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries
Making an Impact
Established in 1996, the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP) is a mechanism geared at linking and sharing the experience of Lusophone countries. Besides Portugal, this includes Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
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Don’t Mind the Disruption
Having won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Lisbon hosted the 2018 event. The relevance? Well, the contest began back in 1956 as a showcase not only of song, but of then-nascent live television broadcast technology. Today, Portugal is on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
read articleInterview
João Pedro Soeiro de Matos Fernandes , Minister , Environment and Energy Transition
The Ministry for the Environment and Energy Transition is focusing on decarbonizing the economy, valuing the territory and its habitats, and striving for a more circular use of the country's resources.
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António Braz Costa , General Manager, Portuguese Technological Centre for the Textile & Clothing Industries (CITEVE)
CITEVE has transformed the industry by promoting value addition, adopting the latest technologies, and ensuring the highest standards of environmental sustainability.
read articleFocus: New airport
Right Time to Seize Missed Opportunities
Portugal has seen its air traffic figures increase by as much as 80% in the last five years. As a result, its transportation infrastructure, and Lisbon's airport in particular, cannot cope with the rising numbers. A new airport project that will turn a military base into a commercial airport is now under discussion to bring much-needed relief to air traffic.
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Germano de Sousa , President, Grupo Germano de Sousa
Grupo Germano de Sousa's success can best be summed up by its understanding that science and medicine only really progress when technological development is combined with a deeper respect for human values and professional ethics.
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Isabel Capeloa Gil , Rector, Universidade Católica
Having pioneered the introduction of multiple subject areas to Portugal's tertiary education scene, Universidade Católica is aspiring to establish the country's first private medical school and introduce cutting-edge digital transformation.
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Carlos Guillén Gestoso , President, Escola Universitária de Ciências Empresariais, Saúde, Tecnologias e Engenharia & President, Atlantica University
Atlantica University differentiates through its company-university model and an MBA program in partnership with the University of California, Berkley, among other initiatives, to produce practical theoreticians.
read articleFocus: Public teaching staff
An Age-old Problem
Over a decade of austerity measures combined with an ageing population have seen the average age of the Portuguese public teaching staff progressively climb to one of the highest in the OECD. With frozen salaries, an extended retirement age, and precarious working conditions, today the sector faces one of its biggest challenge yet.
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Pedro Queiroz , General Manager, Federation of the Portuguese Agri-Food Industry (FIPA)
Portugal's economic recovery has seen its F&B sector emerge with annual turnovers of EUR16 billion, thanks to FIPA's undeterred focus on stable policies, excellent nutrition standards, and sustainability.
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