WTTC honours Pisani at the Valletta summit
The World Travel & Tourism Council gave its Icon Award to Alfred Pisani, founder and executive chairman of Corinthia, at a VIP dinner during the council’s 26th Global Summit in Valletta on 8 October 2026. CPHCL Group, the parent company of Corinthia, announced the award on 12 October.
WTTC describes the Icon Award as recognition for a lifetime contribution that has shaped destinations, institutions or the travel and tourism sector itself, and raised the quality and profile of tourism for generations. The summit drew more than 1,000 delegates, including over 200 travel and tourism chief executives and government ministers.
The award was collected by his daughter
Alexandra Pisani, general manager of the Corinthia Palace and executive of development at Corinthia Hotels, received the award on her father’s behalf. The council’s citation names both of her titles.
Gloria Guevara, president and chief executive of WTTC, put the award on the distance travelled from Malta. “He has helped showcase Maltese hospitality to the world and inspired generations of entrepreneurs and tourism leaders,” she said.
1962: a restaurant in an Attard villa
CPHCL dates its own beginning to 6 December 1962, when the Pisani family turned an art nouveau villa in Attard into a fine dining restaurant. The group puts the opening team at 11 employees. Corinthia’s own history names the restaurant Villa Refalo and calls it modest.
Six years later the restaurant was extended into the Corinthia Palace Hotel, the group’s first hotel, in 1968. Corinthia calls that building the cornerstone of the brand, and it trades today as the Corinthia Palace.
The company the restaurant became
CPHCL listed International Hotel Investments plc in 2000. That company holds the Corinthia brand and its portfolio, and CPHCL keeps a 58 per cent stake. CPHCL also owns Palace Landscaping and Palace Garden Centre, Palace Residences, Palazzo Leone for elderly residential care, Palace Concierge, Recruitment and Quality Talent, Swan Laundry and the Danish Bakery trading as Jesper’s.
The award lands six decades after the restaurant opened. CPHCL closes its own account of it on the note it uses for the group: a business that began with one restaurant in Attard, and a brand that now sells Maltese hospitality abroad.