Chris Zappia, the marketing director at the Queen Mary, sent an e-mail today indicating that he and the company he works for, Hostmark Hospitality Group, will no longer be running the day-to-day operations of the ship beginning Monday. Delaware North Companies, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based hospitality company that runs hotels and attractions around the world, will be taking over. We knew this was coming and reported at the end of last month about the pending operator change.
New York-based Garrison Investment Group still holds the city-owned ship's lease and the rights to develop 45 acres of land next to the Queen Mary. Garrison took over Save the Queen, which technically still has the ship lease, at the beginning of the year when that company's principals ran out of money. Save the Queen, you may remember, bought the ship's lease in November 2007 at auction after the previous operator went bankrupt. So continues the long saga of the Queen Mary changing hands in attempts to revive it and make it a viable business and tourist attraction.
Here's part of Zappia's e-mail explaining the pending change.
As most of you are aware, there is a change of management companies occurring here at the Queen Mary. This change will become effective Monday, September 28th. The new company will be outsourcing a good deal of the PR and marketing responsibilities, which means that the Director of Marketing position is being eliminated. Thus, today is effectively my last day.
The decision to replace Hostmark with Delaware North apparently came from Garrison. Delaware North runs a variety of tourist attractions and hotels that the company calls "special places."
The company manages services at Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park in California, runs the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, and provides hospitality and food service at London's Wembley Stadium, among others.
Paul Eakins reports on Long Beach City Hall, and local and regional
politics. A newcomer to the Press-
Kris Hanson reports on the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles,
covering environmental issues, economic triumphs and
pitfalls and trade trends of America’s largest port.
He also writes a weekly column “On The Waterfront”,
appearing Tuesdays, and also produces an occassional video
and column titled “On The Job,” which follows the hard-working
men and women who keep Southern California’s economy humming.
Karen Robes Meeks came to work for the Press-
Leave a comment