Feuilleton 350 - Happy Birthday Famous Hotels

( words)

Dear Friends, Readers and Fellow Travellers

By Andreas Augustin

Happy Birthday — The Most Famous Hotels in the World

Today, let me lean back and conjure up 28 November 1986. Since early morning, a signboard at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore displayed:

LAUNCH OF THE BOOK "RAFFLES" in the library
The Most Famous Hotels in the World
Tonight, at the Writers’ Bar
28. November 1986

That was our very first book!

Only days later – in London 32 years ago – we founded The Most Famous Hotels in the World. 80 hotels joined the first list. Today, 455 hotels in 327 cities and 88 countries bear the title "A Select Member of The Most Famous Hotels in the World".

The Most Famous Hotels in the World is the global hotel history publishing house, the 'Library of Hospitality' and the ambitious curator of hotel history exhibitions — The Path of History.

We are proud to hand-craft each book, each exhibition; put in years of careful research, thoughtfully select pictures, personal memories and unearthed papers, never published before.

Of course, I salute our readers, who so strongly support our publishing activities. I am indepted to my team. But most of all I wish to thank those hoteliers who, every day of the year, wander through their hotels, welcome their guests (perhaps leaning over a deaf ear in the lobby to ask an old regular if he had enjoyed last night at the restaurant), and listen to the stories of travellers, regular guests and the newly arrived.

It is them who so actively helped to bring The Most Famous Hotels in the World to the peak of the mountain. At least that is the view I enjoy, when I look down.

Alas, once the fog and clouds clear, I see that I am only half way up. There are still those who ignore history and believe they can build a future without a past. They are on my agenda for the next 32 years.

I hope you keep me company for the rest of the climb.

Yours

As always

Andreas Augustin
President
The Most Famous Hotels in the World e.V.

———32 Years later ———