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| Gabriel David Gunesekere
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The Clarks Hotels & Resorts has announced the appointment of Gabriel David Gunesekere as Head Development – Sri Lanka, Maldives and International.
He will be responsible for negotiating management contracts, branding, recruiting the Teams in certain geographical locations with a focus on the expansion of properties in Sri Lanka and Maldives with representations internationally.
Further negotiations are currently in the pipeline for new property tie-ups with The Clarks Hotels & Resorts Network both in Sri Lanka and Maldives with other key geographical locations etc.
Gabriel Gunesekere is an accomplished professional, with over 30 years of experience in tourism and hospitality management. Gabriel’s tenure-ship extends to many parts of the globe. However, his key current locations of focus are – the Indian Ocean Islands, Middle East/North Africa, Southern Europe and South East Asia with a twin positioning of working – out of Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.
Gabriel Gunesekere said: “I am indeed excited to join The Clarks Hotels & Resorts, especially when the group has planned to focus on an expansion drive overseas. Due to my prior work experience in hospitality that is spread across many countries internationally, I can understand the intricacies of different cultures and business segments similarly.
“Considering the post-pandemic period, we can certainly see a huge shift taking place especially in the hospitality sector. Travelers are now looking for safer protocols in health related areas that include up-market properties. Customers are also more demanding and tech-savvy and select properties with international standards and quality properties.
“We are delighted to mention that we are always happy to tie-up with those properties that also align together with our brand values. We want to ensure these properties provide the same level of hospitality for which The Clarks Hotels & Resorts share and portray.”
Gabriel was also part of midscale and upscale hotels that included the luxury properties in Qatar, Bahrain, The UAE – Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Sri Lanka, Myanmar which also included inbound tourism in Oman and Maldives etc.
He has worked with renowned brands such as The French hotel group – Accor Hotels Qatar/The Gulf Region promoting different brands of Accor Hotels, Swiss-Belhotel International, Bahrain, Millennium hotel, Abu Dhabi. Jebel Ali Resorts Dubai, The Kingsbury Hotel Colombo, Sri Lanka, The Rose Garden Hotel Yangon, Myanmar etc.
Gabriel also has a key interest towards continuous education having followed many Tourism studies and workshops especially with the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) in Qatar, Accor Academy Dubai. Currently he is pursing online MBA from The Staffordshire University UK.
