Q&A with Ritz-Carlton President Simon Cooper about joining Twitter

Simon Cooper, president and chief operations officer of the luxury travel brand Ritz-Carlton, wrote his first “tweet” on Twitter Monday. Ritz-Carlton is not the first high-end hotel brand to make its presence on Twitter, so I wanted to have a chat with Simon to ask him why now — and what can we expect from the award-winning hospitality legend going forward?

Will you be twittering as @RitzCarlton or another name?
I am using my own name @simonfcooper in my capacity as the president and COO of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., LLC.

Who has caught you up to speed on the Twittersphere?
I am surrounded by an extremely enthusiastic team of communications professionals at our corporate headquarters. They alerted me to the great opportunity to converse through Twitter. As soon as I had familiarized myself, I was anxious to make my debut, which happened today (June 1).

What’s bringing you to the space now? Did you feel peer-pressured into it?
As an organization, we are always seeking opportunities to evolve the communications landscape for our brand. Twitter is a rapidly growing social medium that is populated by many Ritz-Carlton fans and loyalists, so it makes sense for us to be there. @ritzcarltonpr has been successfully conversing with journalists for several weeks and next to share his insights through Tweets will be our Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, @brucehimelstein. We don’t tend to make decisions based on peer-pressure; though we do believe that others in the luxury sector will follow our suit.

Let’s talk demographics. Ritz-Carlton has the reputation of having older, wealthy guests. Are they on Twitter or do you see yourself addressing a new audience by participating in Twitter?
I can honestly say it would be hard to categorize a Ritz-Carlton guest of today by age or personal wealth. We enjoy the patronage of loyal customers who have stayed with us for decades, but also see a vast number of younger guests who enjoy stunning environments and superior quality of service, and others who choose to celebrate very special occasions in their lives with us, such as weddings, honeymoons and anniversaries.

The evolution of the Ritz-Carlton brand has been an interesting exercise in growing a luxury market, shifting the design approach of our hotels significantly and breaking down perceived stiffness. But also helping to contribute considerably to our shifting customer mix is a phenomenal growth rate. At the time we are speaking, there are 72 Ritz-Carlton hotels; a further 30 projects are now underway throughout the world. What does this mean? The demographics of our guests are multi-generational, multi-national and multi-cultural and social networking is the new tipping point for the formulation of opinion for them all. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook give us the platform to engage in transparent conversation with millions of people.

Are any of your individual properties already on Twitter – or will they be if they’re not already?
I wanted to lead by example by publishing a Twitter channel for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., LLC first. However, we will have properties from China, the Middle East and the U.S. join the Twitterverse in the coming months.

Which of your competitors do you think is doing a good job on Twitter?
We have been inspired by the team at Marriott, @marriottintl, and also by Mr. Marriott’s own blog. We also watch luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton on Twitter most closely. It’s wonderful for the Ritz-Carlton to interact daily with travel journalists and bloggers such as @wendyperrin, @latimestravel, and @elliotdotorg. Your readers should know that I am following you, on Twitter.

Some hotels are using Twitter as a second concierge. Will your tweets have a similar feel?
I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts on how the luxury hospitality sector is changing and shifting its point of reference. Globally, there is much happening in travel, and I have the good fortune to be involved in very exciting initiatives and developments both specific to the Ritz-Carlton and more broadly across the industry.

What types of topics can we expect in your tweets?
You should definitely follow me to find out….
I will provide a candid view of global travel today and observations about the trends that are emerging. As we speak, I am on a tour of Europe which will no doubt provide me with more subject matter to Tweet than 140 characters will allow!

What other types of social media is Ritz-Carlton participating in? Do you have a Facebook fan page?
We do. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., LLC launched a page this year that is proving extremely popular. Again, there is much excitement around the daily interactions that we are having with fans of the brand through this medium.

And the question many people are wondering – are you going to be writing your tweets or will you hand it over to a public relations department or ghost writer?
Sincerely, my tweets will be my own. Including today’s, which I wrote from England.

Thanks for your time Simon. We look forward to your tweets and will want to know what you think about the medium after you’ve spent some time on it.

– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Top photo: Ritz-Carlton; Image: Twitter ]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 9:29 am by Jen Leo and is filed under Hotels, Luxury Travel, News, Tips & Advice, Travel Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.