Alastair Stevenson

Alastair Stevenson established a niche hotel marketing planning consultancy, Marketing Planning Associates (MPA), in 1987. Initial projects included both marketing planning for major chains and individual properties as well as development assessment. Early clients included Forte Hotels, Whitbread, and Holiday Inn Hotels.  A wide range of assignments have been carried out for Touche Ross/Deloitte and Touche in the UK and Ireland, providing specialist input for many projects, including Granada's advisory team during the Forte takeover battle and marketing support for the hotels they operated in receivership in the 1990s.

Alastair has provided consultancy services to many of the major hotel groups over the years, as well as high-profile independent hotels. Hotel assignments have ranged from the development of a brand specification for Conrad International to the preparation of marketing strategies for some of the best known country house hotels in the UK and Ireland and numerous market feasibility studies. Many key clients have returned for a variety of projects over many years.

The firm also works in the wider fields of heritage attractions and other tourist facilities, with clients including English Heritage, Shropshire CC, Buckinghamshire CC and The National Botanic Garden of Wales. Many such projects hinge round market assessments and the income generating potential of investment proposals.

Alastair has also provided advice to national and regional tourist boards on a wide range of topics, including hotel development, business planning and tourism development and marketing strategies.

Prior to establishing MPA, Alastair held a number of senior marketing and sales positions including:

• sales and marketing manager of the 800-room Cumberland Hotel in London;
• marketing manager of Forte's overseas hotels; and
• marketing planning manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa division of Holiday Inn Hotels.

His initial hotel marketing training was as a trainee consultant to hotel marketing guru Melvyn Greene of Greene, Belfield-Smith, which was followed by three years as a regional tourist officer in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands.

Alastair is a Fellow of both The Tourism Society and the Institute of Hospitality and recently completed a four-year appointment as a non-executive director of Horticultural Halls Limited, the exhibition and conference centre of the Royal Horticultural Society in Westminster.

Associated Areas of Expertise

Benchmarking performance Read more >

Market entry and exit Read more >

Sales and marketing management Read more >