My experience in the hospitality and leisure industry

My first experience in the hospitality and leisure industry was in the cinema business when I joined Kinepolis Group as Theatre Manager at Kinepolis Poznan (Poland). A very challenging role, in which I was responsible for the biggest cinema complex in Europe. A very broad role too, with focus on human resources, operations, B2C and B2B marketing and sales, booking and programming and finance. By the end of my three year stay, we had managed to increase visitor numbers by more than 25 percent and we had become the operationally highest rated cinema complex across the Group.

Next, I took up a new challenge within Kinepolis Group in Belgium as Operations Manager Belgium East, with the operational responsibility for six cinema theatres; after that I became National Theatre Manager, having the operational responsibility for all 11 Belgian cinemas complexes. Very challenging roles, focusing on developing the Theatre Managers and their teams. I contributed to setting up operational and financial benchmarking and the development of a completely new organizational structure for the cinema complexes. During this period we also realized some very challenging projects, such as the switch from free seating to numbered seating and the transition from the fast lane concept to the browsing area concept for Food & Beverage and Merchandising. The development and opening of the new cinema complex in Oostende was also an great achievement. 

The next chapter in the hospitality and leisure industry brought me to the theme park industry , particularly at Plopsa Group. As Operations Director I was responsible for the operational management of the 5 theme parks in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. In this role, the focus was on developing the Operations Managers of the theme parks. Important projects were the set-up of a new organizational model for the outdoor parks and the introduction of a new planning model, optimizing the planning of staff members in relation to the expected visitor numbers for all operational departments involved. A very challenging project was the development and implementation of a uniform policy for handling guests with disabilities, which was developed in close collaboration with various interest groups and government agencies.

My last experience brought me to Comics Station Antwerp, an indoor theme park. As Crisis Manager I was responsible for a complete turnaround of the park on an organizational, operational and commercial level. We made this happen through recruitment of an almost completely new management team and a change of the operational model in order to drastically reduce operational costs. At the same time, visitor numbers were significantly increased by setting up collaborations with various external sales partners. When the first phase was done, we did a full rebranding and we developed the possibilities for B2B-sales and put them actively into the market.

Since the beginning of January 2019, I am a full-time Independent consultant / Trainer / Coach for the hospitality and leisure industry, supporting companies in the industry on the operational and strategic level. In recent years, I have completed assignments within several companies, some short-term and some longer-term

Since 2021, I may also pass on my experience to students at Thomas More Hogeschool in Mechelen, where I teach 'Business Planning' and 'International Leisure Development' within the Bachelors (International) Media & Entertainment Business and 'Management Skills' within the Bachelor International Tourism & Leisure