Podcast
Episode 42: Redefining the Glamour of Travel with Nammos Hotels & Resorts
With roots in Mykonos and a growing portfolio spanning the globe, Nammos Hotels & Resorts is bringing a distinctly Mediterranean perspective to ultra-luxury, where intuitive service, a strong sense of place, and the freedom to be yourself take center stage.
What began more than two decades ago as an iconic beach club in Mykonos is now becoming something much bigger. Under the leadership of Carolyn Turnbull, Nammos Hotels & Resorts is expanding its signature approach to food, hospitality, and celebration into a growing portfolio of ultra-luxury resorts, residences, restaurants, and spas around the world.
Carolyn joined me recently in Las Vegas to talk about the next chapter for Nammos, drawing on a career that includes more than 15 years with Aman Resorts and a stint as CEO of Tourism Western Australia. After moving to Dubai just over a year ago, she took on the opportunity to build the next evolution of a brand with more than two decades of history in Mykonos.
That history is important. With roots as a beach club and restaurant in Mykonos more than 20 years ago, Nammos then expanded internationally, including a move into Dubai in 2019. Within two years, the Dubai restaurant had become the world’s highest-yielding restaurant, generating $70 million annually. Today, Nammos restaurants span Mykonos, Dubai, London, Limassol, Cannes, and Sardinia, while the brand’s first boutique hotel in Mykonos provides a foundation for its move into full-scale hospitality.
The next step is Nammos Resort AMAALA in Saudi Arabia, set to open September 1, followed by newly signed projects in Montenegro and Ras El Hekma on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. Beyond those destinations, Carolyn sees opportunities across the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and North America. The vision is not simply to add hotels, but to bring together accommodation, branded residences, restaurants, spas, and retail into a cohesive Nammos ecosystem.
At the heart of that ecosystem is a Mediterranean sense of place. Carolyn describes service and design as two of the brand’s defining pillars, with the company working with Athens-based design firm Elastic to bring its architectural identity to each destination. But perhaps more important is the culture behind the brand. With more than a million restaurant covers each year, “endless joy” is not simply an outward-facing tagline. Carolyn wants it to define how employees interact with guests and one another, creating a culture where hospitality professionals feel ownership of the brand they are helping build.
That philosophy becomes particularly relevant in AMAALA, where Nammos joins an emerging destination alongside established luxury brands. For Carolyn, the opportunity is to offer something distinctly different: a Mediterranean interpretation of luxury that feels vibrant, social, and connected to the destination. Early demand suggests there is an appetite for it, with the branded residences at the Ras El Hekma project already sold out shortly after being announced.
Carolyn believes the future lies in “invisible luxury,” where service is highly personalized but never intrusive. Lower room counts allow Nammos to maintain an appropriate guest-to-staff ratio, while giving teams the freedom to read the room rather than follow rigid scripts. Guests should be able to dress up or down, celebrate loudly or retreat quietly, and ultimately feel free to be themselves.
“I do feel that we bring something really refreshing and elevated to an industry that, you know, is a bit more traditional in its luxury sense.”
That human fluency is also where Carolyn sees technology playing a supporting role. As a greenfield operator, Nammos has the rare opportunity to build its technology infrastructure from the ground up, using AI and other tools to eliminate friction without removing the human touch. She sees particular potential in combining AI-generated itineraries with the expertise of travel advisors and the local knowledge of hotel teams to create increasingly personalized journeys across multiple Nammos destinations
For Carolyn, building a global luxury brand ultimately comes back to people. Her leadership lessons include finding strong mentors, listening more than talking, understanding the needs of different stakeholders, and leading with patience and heart. She sees hospitality as an especially dynamic industry for the next generation, offering pathways across hotels, travel advising, finance, real estate, technology, sales, and marketing.
To close our conversation, I asked LTI’s signature rapid fire questions. For personal travel, Carolyn hopes to explore more of her new hometown of Dubai. When asked about the glamorous days of travel, she thinks they are still here, and that Nammos is spearheading the idea that glamour can be created destination by destination, guest by guest. For future innovation, she provided perhaps one of my favorite answers of Season Two: pairing a bespoke travel itinerary with a curated fashion plan, so guests arrive to find the perfect combination of global and local designers waiting in their suite for their trip.
Thank you, Carolyn, for joining me on this episode of Luxury Travel Innovators. The full episode is available to listen to and watch on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Youtube.
