LMS: Daniel Stiefel elected Chairman of the Board of Directors
Felix Frei, Brigitte Küng, and Bruno Zenklusen were elected as new members of the board of directors at the Lenzerheide Marketing and Support board elections. Daniel Stiefel is now the new chairman of the LMS board of directors.
With a minimal loss of 229 francs, LMS executives presented a balanced 2020/21 financial statement at Tuesday's general meeting. Operating income rose 12.7 percent to 5.3 million francs, increasing direct marketing expenses by 300,000 francs to nearly 2.3 million francs.
Hotel and parahotel industry up, group accommodation down
After the slump in the previous year due to the shortened winter season 2019/20 caused by Corona and the loss of overnight stays from Brienz/Brinzauls, the curve of the overnight stay statistics of the vacation region Lenzerheide shows a clear upward trend again. Between May 2020 and April 2021, the municipalities of Vaz/Obervaz, Churwalden and Lantsch/Lenz recorded a total of 1,655,470 overnight stays, which corresponds to an increase of 7.6 percent compared to the previous year.
"Thanks to the many Swiss guests who have been visiting Lenzerheide as a vacation destination for years, and the new guests who were forced to swap the "mountain feeling" for the familiar "beach feeling", overnight stays in the hotel and parahotel industry were once again increased at a high level," emphasizes Bruno Fläcklin, Tourism Director of the Lenzerheide vacation region. Only the group accommodations had to accept large losses with a minus of 53.8 percent (municipality of Vaz/Obervaz).
"In retrospect, we can say that Switzerland, and the canton of Graubünden in particular, found an exemplary way to maintain a certain degree of normality despite the necessary restrictions," says Domenico Bergamin, Managing Director ad interim, explaining the increase in overnight stays during the Covid 19 pandemic. For him, it was admirable with how much verve, flexibility and inventiveness many service providers dealt with the situation. "from the serviced mobile home dinner, to the home-delivered "cooking box", to digital shopping in the sports store, it showed that new ideas often emerge in a crisis," Domenico Bergamin is convinced.
Domenico Bergamin took over management ad interim
Internally, the 2020/21 fiscal year was marked by the renewed health failure of the Managing Director and Tourism Director Bruno Fläcklin. In December 2020, he had undergone a stem cell transplant and completely withdrew from the operational business of LMS. Since then, the management has been taken over ad interim by Domenico Bergamin. Since a few weeks, Bruno Fläcklin has gradually taken over individual projects and tasks and will fully take over the position of Tourism Director and Managing Director of LMS from Domenico Bergamin again as of November 1, 2021.
Renewal elections of the Board of Directors
The General Assembly of LMS focused on the renewal elections of the Board of Directors. With Giancarlo Pallioppi and Nico Pesko, two previous members were elected as representatives of Lenzerheide Tourism for a further term of office. They are thus to ensure continuity in the highest body of LMS. The representatives of the municipalities of Vaz/Obervaz and Churwalden will be elected on the occasion of an extraordinary general meeting as of January 2022 as a result of the changes in the municipal presidencies. Newly elected at the General Assembly was Bruno Zenklusen, as President of Lantsch/Lenz Tourism and representative of the municipality of Lantsch/Lenz. In addition, the two seats of Lenzerheide Bergbahnen were newly filled by Felix Frei, Chairman of the Board of Directors of LBB, and Brigitte Küng.
Daniel Stiefel new Chairman of the Board of Directors
After the previous Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ernst "Aschi" Wyrsch, decided already in spring 2021 not to stand for re-election, the two main shareholders, Lenzerheide Tourism and LBB, nominated Daniel Stiefel as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors (Werbewoche.ch reported). The 56-year-old manager and consultant in the fields of customer relationship management, marketing, digitalization and controlling in the national and international environment was unanimously elected as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of LMS.
