Wyndham Hotel Group has appointed Dimitris Manikis as president and managing director for the group's Europe, Middle East, Eurasia and Africa division.
Manikis, who will be based at Wyndham's London offices, will manage the development of all brands under Wyndham Hotel Group in the EMEA region and the performance of all new and existing franchise and managed hotels. He will also lead Wyndham's quality, technology, loyalty, sales and marketing strategies.
Manikis has 27 years of experience at vacation timeshare company RCI. He served as VP of business development for RCI's EMEA division prior to joining Wyndham. Manikis also held several executive positions in the RCI department, including MD of RCI Greece and RCI South Africa.
“I am looking forward to strengthening the operations and footprint of Wyndham Hotel Group in EMEA, a region I have been associated with for nearly three decades,” Manikis said in a statement. “With the robust performance of the industry in several key markets in EMEA last year, the potential for Wyndham Hotel Group to expand its operations further in the region is tremendous.”
Manikis has a master’s degree in science of tourism marketing from the University of Surrey, UK. He also has a degree in tourism & administration from the Technical University of Patras in Greece.
Wyndham Hotel Group continued its expansion across EMEA in 2017 with several openings. Now, the group has a portfolio of approximately 470 hotels operating in the region. Wyndham opened the company's first hotel in Kuwait plus nine additional openings in Turkey last year. The group also brought its Wyndham Grand and Wyndham Garden brands to Bahrain for the first time.