Hospitality has always been an industry defined by people, places, and the connections that bring them together. However, behind the scenes, it is also driven by technology and strategy, tools that shape guest experiences and enable hotels and destinations to thrive in an increasingly complex global marketplace.
At the center of this intersection is Jan Tissera, Head of Sales International, Global Accounts & Destinations, who also serves as President International for Amadeus’ Hospitality division. In this role, he leads commercial operations across Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, while overseeing some of the company’s most strategic global accounts and destination partnerships.
Jan’s expertise has been built over decades of experience in hospitality technology and global distribution. At TravelClick, where he began in 1996, he led Global Sales across multiple continents, helping hoteliers optimize revenue and harness technology for growth. Earlier, at Hyatt International, he managed a wide-ranging portfolio that included worldwide reservations, global distribution systems, marketing consortia, rate management, and guest recognition programs across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. It is this blend of operational depth and commercial vision that has shaped Jan into a leader uniquely positioned to guide the future of global hospitality.
The Power of Transformation and Service
Transformation and servant leadership are two enduring principles that have always guided Jan’s leadership in the global hospitality industry. He believes that transformation means never standing still and helping organizations, teams, and customers adapt to change with courage and clarity of purpose. Servant leadership, meanwhile, is about putting people first while listening, empowering, and creating an environment where individuals can thrive.
This philosophy has shaped the way he builds teams across markets. “Our local teams are the face of the company,” he says. By empowering regional leaders to be close to customers, exceed expectations, and strengthen relationships, Jan ensures that success is shared where the achievements of the customer and the team are inseparable.
Global Insights, Local Relevance
Having lived and worked across Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas, Jan has seen firsthand how hospitality requires a balance of global consistency and local authenticity. While technology may be universal, he notes, hospitality remains deeply local.
He often likens it to peeling an onion: the global vision is the whole, but each layer represents a region’s unique expectations, cultural nuances, and way of doing business. True customer-centric innovation, in his view, lies in respecting those layers and protecting the universal core while tailoring solutions to reflect local character. “That balance between scale and personalization,” he explains, “is what allows us to deliver experiences that resonate everywhere, but feel authentic to each market.”
A Culture of Continuous Growth
Managing international responsibilities requires more than just discipline; it demands intentional choices. Jan believes balance begins with taking care of himself through regular exercise, reflection, and renewal. Just as vital is quality time with family and friends, who bring him perspective and energy.
Curiosity also fuels his sense of harmony. From reading industry journals to exploring digital platforms, he continuously seeks new perspectives to bring back into his work. This same emphasis on growth is something he encourages within his teams. By investing in their well-being, professional development, and personal brands, Jan believes they become stronger both individually and collectively. “The constant pursuit of growth,” he says, “is at the heart of real transformation.”
Servant Leadership in Times of Change
One of the defining themes of Jan’s career has been leading teams through disruption, whether industry-wide technological shifts or global crises. He sees the lesson is clear: every challenge holds the seed of opportunity.
He approaches such moments with empathy and servant leadership, ensuring teams feel supported, empowered, and equipped with clarity. “People-first is not a slogan,” he emphasizes. “It’s the foundation of sustainable success for our teams and our customers alike.” By reframing uncertainty as a chance for transformation, Jan has helped organizations emerge stronger from even the toughest moments.
A Visionary Landscape
Of all the regions Jan has worked in, the Middle East stands out for its bold ambition and extraordinary pace of growth. Here, hospitality extends beyond accommodation to the creation of destinations that redefine global tourism.
He points to qualities described in The Sheik CEO: long-term vision, the courage to take calculated risks, and the ability to mobilize entire ecosystems behind a shared goal. These traits, he says, are deeply woven into the DNA of the region’s hospitality sector. Leaders here are willing to invest at scale, adopt innovations quickly, and deliver world-class experiences that set new benchmarks.
At Amadeus, Jan sees a unique opportunity to contribute to this momentum. By pairing the region’s bold vision with global platforms and technological expertise, he and his team are helping to shape what he calls “the future of hospitality for generations to come”.
Scaling with Agility
As President International at Amadeus Hospitality, Jan carries responsibility for shaping the company’s commercial strategy and customer engagement across some of the world’s most diverse markets, like Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Within this scope, he also oversees Amadeus’ partnerships with Global Accounts and Destinations, the Tier 1 customers that represent some of the company’s most strategic relationships.
For Jan, the role is a careful balance between scale and agility. “The challenge,” he explains, “is making sure our global operations are aligned under one vision, while empowering regional teams with the flexibility to execute locally.” That balance is achieved through constant dialogue, trust in strong regional leadership, and an unrelenting focus on KPIs that measure both customer impact and organizational growth. It’s a leadership style that combines oversight with empowerment, also ensuring teams are not just aligned but equipped to deliver meaningful value on the ground.
Leadership for Lasting Transformation
In Jan’s view, successful transformation in hospitality technology is less about systems and more about people. “Adaptability and execution matter,” he notes, “but what truly sustains transformation is culture. Culture eats strategy for breakfast and technology for lunch.”
His leadership philosophy is rooted in servant leadership, removing obstacles, creating clarity, and empowering people to succeed. At Amadeus Hospitality, this translates into developing talent, trusting teams, and encouraging boldness in how they serve customers.
One of the company’s ambitions is to build the world’s foremost consultative selling organization. For Jan, that means equipping sales teams to go beyond transactions, becoming trusted advisors who bring credibility, thought leadership, and confidence to customers navigating change. He encourages individuals to cultivate their own personal brands, projecting themselves as industry voices as well as company representatives.
“Transformation doesn’t come from individual brilliance alone,” Jan emphasizes. “It comes from collective strength.” That belief is encapsulated in a phrase often repeated within the company: #Strongertogether. To him, it’s not just a hashtag but a reminder that real innovation happens when empowered teams move as one.
Building Global Strength Through Teams
Among the many milestones of his career at Amadeus, Jan is most proud of the teams he has built and empowered across international markets. These teams, he says, are the reason Amadeus has sustained long-standing partnerships with many of the world’s leading hospitality brands, consistently delivering value through growth, enhanced guest experiences, and resilience in times of change.
Another point of pride is his role in steering the organization through major strategic acquisitions from TravelClick to Newmarket, Travel Audience, ForwardKeys, and more. Each integration was not only a complex undertaking but also a transformative step in shaping the breadth and depth of Amadeus Hospitality’s portfolio. “The accomplishment,” Jan reflects, “is not just in the transactions themselves, but in how our teams came together—turning complexity into opportunity and reinforcing our commitment to serve the industry with excellence.”
Mentorship and the Next Wave of Leaders
Jan sees mentorship as one of his most important responsibilities. He makes it a priority to spend time with emerging leaders, share lessons learned, and provide opportunities for stretch assignments that build confidence. Servant leadership, in his view, is about lifting others up and helping them find their voice and grow into trusted advisors for customers and colleagues alike.
He encourages individuals to develop their personal brand, emphasizing how they present themselves, how they contribute to the organization, and how they are perceived by customers. This approach, he believes, creates leaders who are not only technically skilled but also personally credible.
From creating world-class onboarding programs to facilitating introductions across the organization, Jan ensures that new voices feel included and supported from the start. “Mentorship,” he says, “isn’t only about preparing someone for their next role. It’s about shaping a culture of empowerment and transformation that carries the industry forward.”
The Power of Listening to Lead
For Jan, leadership in international markets begins with listening. Each culture brings its own rhythm to communication, decision-making, and trust-building. By taking the time to listen, he adapts his leadership style, sometimes leaning toward a more directive approach and other times favoring consensus. What never changes is the foundation of respect: acknowledging cultural diversity while uniting teams around a shared mission.
He often recalls Nelson Mandela’s wisdom that true leaders speak last. That philosophy also shapes how he approaches customers. At Amadeus, Jan champions value-based selling over feature-driven conversations, grounding relationships in two timeless questions: Do I like you? Do I trust you? For him, trust and empathy are the bedrock of lasting partnerships, and the key to delivering meaningful value.
Guidance for the Next Generation
When asked what advice he would give to young professionals, Jan begins with perspective. “We are blessed,” he says, “to be part of such a dynamic and fast-growing industry.” He points to figures from the World Travel & Tourism Council: in 2024, travel and tourism accounted for 10% of global GDP and supported 348 million jobs worldwide, numbers projected to rise even further by 2034. Few industries, he notes, offer such scale, impact, and opportunity.
Against this backdrop, his advice is both practical and inspiring. Jan believes curiosity is the essential starting point. Curiosity about technology, about the business of travel, and above all, about people. Hospitality remains, at its core, a people industry, and future leaders must be able to connect across perspectives with empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence.
Jan also stresses the importance of adaptability and resilience, the ability to pivot in complex situations, alongside “street smarts,” which he defines as creativity in reaching customers, building rapport, and demonstrating genuine understanding of their challenges. Success, he reminds young professionals, is built not on shortcuts but on perseverance, patience, and integrity.
Quoting Maya Angelou, he reflects: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” In hospitality, Jan adds, this truth is magnified because how we make people feel is the essence of the industry.
The Next Chapter of Hospitality
Looking ahead, Jan sees hospitality entering a defining era that is shaped by personalization, seamless connectivity, and sustainability. He believes Amadeus Hospitality is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation. The company’s platforms unify operations across the guest journey, while its data-driven insights unlock hyper-personalized experiences and its innovations support more sustainable travel.
But for Jan, technology is never the starting point, as the customer is. “Every solution we design begins with empathy,” he says. “We think about the challenges our customers face and the opportunities they want to unlock.” From driving profitable demand to achieving operational excellence, the goal is always to help hoteliers deliver differentiation and loyalty in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Emerging technologies, especially agentic AI, will play a key role in this future. By enabling real-time personalization, predictive insights, and more efficient operations, these tools will help hoteliers create journeys that are not only frictionless but also memorable. As Jan frames it, the mission is clear: to combine global technology with deep customer partnership, delivering guest experiences that are both responsible and human-centered.
If there is one lesson Jan believes every executive should carry with them, it is this: transformation is powered by people, not technology alone. Technology enables change, but it is people who imagine, adopt, and deliver it. Leaders, therefore, must invest deeply in trust, capability, and confidence.
As Jan often tells his teams before they set out into the field: “Dream big, get things done, and most importantly, have fun.”