Skift Take
Chief executive pay at Europe's biggest publicly traded travel companies appears to have converged in 2016 with few bumper deals compared with previous years. It could just be a coincidence or might have something to do with the deteriorating economic climate and geopolitical issues.
Outgoing InterContinental Hotels Group chief executive Richard Solomons was the highest paid European travel CEO in 2016 from among 12 publicly traded companies that Skift reviewed.
Solomons' total compensation increased by 7.9 percent in 2016 to $4.5 million (see chart below) mainly because of the increase in the company’s share price under his watch. Under the company’s long-term incentive plan, Solomons was handed shares worth $1.7 million. The award is also based on growth in net rooms' supply and revenue per available room – a popular hotel industry metric – against competitors including Marriott International and AccorHotels. At the end of June, Solomons will step down from the role and will be replaced by chief commercial officer Keith Barr.
The pay packets of the chief executives of both Merlin Entertainments and Hostelworld Group, who both saw their total compensation more than double, overshadowed the relatively modest rise of Solomons’ pay.
Merlin handed Nick Varney $2.48 million in 2016, an increase of 162.6 percent, due mainly to long-term incentives worth $1.5 million. Varney’s bumper pay deal came in the same year that UK health and safety regulators fined Merlin $6.5 million following a crash at its Alton Towers park the year before that left 16 people injur
