Outrigger Hospitality Group has added a newly reintroduced role to its executive team this month, announcing the official appointment of Kenny Kan to senior vice president and chief development officer for the global beach resort brand. In the newly reintroduced role, Kan will report directly to Outrigger president and CEO Jeff Wagoner and oversee the company’s growth initiatives, both in Hawaii and around the globe.

In this exclusive TD interview, Kan reveals his strategy to achieve growth, new developments in the company and the future of Outrigger Hospitality Group.

TD: With the newly re-introduced role — what is your main priority?

KK: As chief development officer for Outrigger Hospitality Group, my role is to oversee the portfolio growth strategies for the company as well as grow our ownership and management portfolio in premier beach destinations globally.

In order to achieve this growth, we will need solid relationships with various parties in the resort hospitality space, including resort owners, brokers and developers – so my main priority at this time is reconnecting with former contacts while establishing new contacts in the hospitality space and sharing the Outrigger vision and value proposition to all.

“We will need solid relationships”

What kind of new developments are you employing?

New developments for Outrigger would be new hotels and resorts added to our portfolio. Having been in the resort hospitality business for more than 70 years, Outrigger has developed a very strong brand and management model that we will export to beach resorts in destinations globally.

What are the group’s expansion plans beyond Hawaii? What can we expect from Outrigger Hospitality Group?

While we continue to look at opportunities within Hawaii, as we know this market extremely well, we are also looking to grow in beach resort destinations globally including Bali, Okinawa, Seychelles, Mexico, and Australia as well as in beach destinations on the mainland USA.

“We expect to continue to grow”

We have seen success in exporting our brand and management model in the Maldives, Mauritius, Fiji and markets in Thailand, so we expect to continue to grow the portfolio significantly over the next five years through acquisitions as well as third-party management contracts.

How do you want the brand to be known throughout the world?

The mission of Outrigger Hospitality Group is to be the premier beach resort brand in the world. I want Outrigger to be known as a global beach resort brand where the uniqueness of local culture meets world-class hospitality.

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