May 31–PARIS — A celebrity boycott of a group of luxury hotels owned by the sultan of Brunei, brought on because of his country’s introduction of sharia law, has spread to France, according to local media reports Saturday.
France Info radio reported that the boycott — which began in Hollywood with stars like Oprah Winfrey severing their ties with the famed Beverly Hills Hotel — had begun to impact bookings at the Plaza Athenee Hotel and Le Meurice in Paris.
The two five-star hotels had suffered “a spate of cancellations,” the radio said.
The centenial Plaza Athenee on Avenue Montaigne is currently closed for work on an extension, but is slated to reopen this summer. Le Meurice was not immediately available for comment.
The two establishments, which have the super-luxury “palace” grading, are part of the Dorchester Collection, which is owned by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah through the Brunei Investment Agency.
On May 1, Brunei became the first south-east Asian country to adopt sharia law, which calls for flogging, dismemberment and death by stoning for crimes such as rape, adultery and sodomy.
The decision sparked a grassroots campaign for a boycott of the group’s hotels, which has drawn in top names in entertainment, such as Winfrey, Jay Leno, Ellen de Generes and Jane Fonda.
Tycoons such as Virgin boss Richard Branson and Francois-Henri Pinault, chief executive of luxury and sports goods conglomerate Kering have also called on people to take their business elsewhere.
Francois Delahaye, Dorchester Collection’s chief operating officer and general manager of the Plaza Athenee, slammed the denunciations as “hypocritical.”
“The people who are boycotting us are people who do business in countries that apply sharia law,” he told France Info.
“I’m not defending sharia, it’s horrible,” he emphasized. “I’m defending the jobs of the group’s 3,500 employees. If hotels are boycotted there will be no clients and we will have to lay off staff.”
