EXCLUSIVE BY JAMES WILKINSON IN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Carlson’s President and CEO, Trudy Rautio, has a mixed outlook for 2013, thanks to market gains in Asia-Pacific, modest growth in the United States and questionable performance in Europe.

“Europe is the question mark,” she told SPICENEWS and sister publication HM on camera at Carlson’s Full Service Brands Business Conference in Chicago, Illinois, recently.

“We don’t know what the outlook is going to be… it continues to be quite uncertain.”

In the exclusive interview, Rautio spoke about the MICE market outlook, growth of the company’s Radisson Blu brand – which is rapidly expanding in the company’s home market of the United States – as well as Carlson’s Ambition 2015 Strategy, which is now in its fourth year.

Rautio also spoke about the growth of Carlson, a company which signed 68 hotels in 2012 and is aiming to have 1500 hotels by 2015 (up from 1305 today).

To view the interview, click on the image below.