Susanne Kraus-Winkler is a longstanding entrepreneur, industry expert and representative in the hospitality industry with 45 years of practical experience in the hotel and restaurant business as well as in tourism consulting and academic lecturing. She was founding partner of the Loisium Wine & Spa Resort Hotel Group, shareholder of several hotel management and tourism consulting companies such as Harry’s Home Hotel group and Advisory board member of MRP Hotels, a European Tourism consulting company in Europe.
Susanne has been a Member of HOTREC Executive Committee since 2004 and was President from 2015 to 2018 representing the European hospitality industry at EU level. She held several further positions in the management board of tourism representations in Austria and at EU level and is member of the Austrian chapter of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Until May 2022 she was President of the Austrian Professional Hotel Association within the Austrian Chamber of Commerce representing 16,000 hotels in Austria. From 2022 until March 2025, she held the position of the Austrian State Secretary for Tourism within the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy.