Word: ioannou
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...against a soundtrack of thumping music and the high-pitched shrieks of revelers. The cruise liner is the latest cheap-and-cheerful venture from Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Ten years after U.K.-based easyJet - now one of the largest intra-European airlines - took off, there's an easy way to do almost anything. In the last six months alone, the easy brand - owned by Stelios' easyGroup - has lent its name to an online movie-rental operation, a mobile-phone operator and a pizza-delivery service. Expect budget motor insurance this month, and a bare-bones hotel in west...
...been what, months, since Stelios Hadji-Ioannou started another business. The European serial entrepreneur of easyJet fame has gone back to his family's maritime roots determined to revolutionize yet another industry with easyCruise. Like easyJet, the minimalist European airline that gave rise to the Easy empire, Hadji-Ioannou's latest venture is bold, bare-bones and very orange. "The strategy," he told attendees at a launch event in Athens, in late March, "is to target younger crowds, in their 20s and 30s, rather than wealthy older people who like more traditional cruises...
Sounds like a party boat for commitment-phobes? It may be. Rather than emphasize the shipboard experience, Hadji-Ioannou says he wants to make the glamorous ports of the French and Italian Riviera the main attraction. Beginning May 6 and at $57 a night per person, cruisers will be allowed to hop off the 4,007-ton easyCruiseOne (there is no Two at this point) at any harbor, have an afternoon of fun ashore and then party the night away before setting sail for the next destination. The catch? Passengers must book at least two nights, and there...
Industry experts predict another Easy success. Traditional cruise lines, they say, won't be threatened unless Hadji-Ioannou adds bigger boats to the Riviera lines. The Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur last week said he was talking with the world's largest cruise operator, Carnival Corp., in hopes of finding a strategic partner...
...hotel sector seems to be heating up. Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is in talks to buy London 's Savoy Hotel for at least $360 million. Ian Schrager has FOR SALE signs up at two London sites, the swanky Sanderson and the St. Martins Lane Hotel. Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup is launching a chain of no-frills easyHotels in early 2005. And Simon Woodroffe - the man behind the YO! Sushi conveyor-belt eateries - is opening Yotel, cramming luxury into tiny, 10-sq-m rooms, inspired by Japan 's "capsule" hotels, for $135 a night. "It's budget chic...