TROMSO (Norway), May 27 — To inaugurate the opening of his new flagship hotel in northern Norway, the Scandinavian answer to Britain’s Sir Richard Branson, daredevil billionaire Petter Stordalen, summited a snowy mountain peak to ski off-piste in an epic descent and marketing stunt.
The result is a heart-stopping video that follows seven adrenaline junkies, including the hotel tycoon and his Olympic alpine medalist friends Lasse Kjus and Ole Kristian Furusethto, as they carve some serious snow, descending 1,800 meters down the Lyngen Alps, to sea level.
The marketing strategy was developed to play on the name of Stordalen’s new flagship hotel, Clarion Hotel ‘The Edge,’ a waterfront property located in the midnight sun capital of the world, Tromsø, in Northern Norway.
To helm the kitchens of the US$75 million (RM23.5 million) property, the hotelier tapped another famous Scandinavian, Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, to lend his star power to the hotel. The menu of Kitchen & Table is described as the flavours of Manhattan and Scandinavia, executed with local ingredients.
The opening of the Tromsø hotel could be seen as sign of confidence in the city’s tourism development. Also known as “the capital of the Arctic,” the city takes advantage of its distinctive feature kitchen — a midnight sun that lasts from about late May to late July — to host events like the Midnight Sun Marathon and music festivals.
Stordalen owns the largest hotel chain in Scandinavia, Nordic Choice Hotels and, like his British counterpart Branson, could be described as a brash adrenaline junkie who likes to make a splash: The 51-year-old has completed an Iron Man race and has opened previous hotels by abseiling or rappelling head-first down the 57-meter facade of the Stockholm airport and descended from the ceiling playing the drums in a giant disco ball. — AFP-Relaxnews
