A 284-room hotel overlooking the Sea of Marmara
Luciano Sozzo has been General Manager of Hyatt Regency Istanbul Ataköy since August 2026. The hotel is located in the Ataköy district, between the airport and the old city. It has 284 rooms, including 30 suites, as well as 3,500 sqm of meeting space.
It stands close to the former Ottoman gunpowder works of Baruthane, Ataköy Marina and the CNR Expo and TÜYAP exhibition centres. Its positioning is built on corporate travellers, MICE and city stays with sea views. Hyatt continues to expand its portfolio in Türkiye, as shown by the opening of Grand Hyatt İzmir İstinyePark on the Aegean coast in early 2026.
From Salento to Rome’s grand hotels
Born in Apulia, Luciano Sozzo is a graduate of the Istituto Alberghiero in Brindisi. He began his career on the front desk of hotels in the Lecce area in the late 1980s. He then moved to Rome and joined the CIGA group, first at the Grand Hotel and then at the Gran Caffè Doney.
He spent almost seven years at the Hotel Excelsior in Rome, a property of The Luxury Collection, where he served as banqueting assistant and then assistant food and beverage director. In 1999, the group sent him to Malta to take over food and beverage at short notice at the Westin Dragonara Resort and coordinate its ten outlets. He then became director of food and beverage at the Marriott Grand Hotel Flora in Rome.
At Concerto Fine Italian Hotels in Florence, he oversaw food and beverage across a chain of seven hotels. The Onice restaurant at Villa La Vedetta earned a Michelin star after its first year of operation. He subsequently became director of sales for Pregio Hotels and Boscolo Hotels in Padua.
General management, from Italy to Ukraine
Luciano Sozzo took up his first general manager role in 2007 at Hotel Terme Manzi, a five-star property on Ischia. There he led the hotel’s positioning on international markets, and its restaurant Il Mosaico won a Michelin star. He went on to open the Domina Hotel & Conference in Rotterdam (196 rooms), before running the Grand Hotel delle Terme in Emilia-Romagna.
In 2012, he took charge of the Superior Golf & Spa Resort in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Under his leadership, the property secured The Leading Hotels of the World, Leading Spa and Leading Golf accreditations.
Kazakhstan and the opening of The St. Regis Astana
Luciano Sozzo joined Rixos Hotels in 2014. He first ran a 184-room five-star hotel in Astana that hosts official delegations, followed by a 236-room property in Almaty.
In 2016, Marriott International appointed him General Manager of The St. Regis Astana, a position he held for more than five years. He led the development and pre-opening of the 120-room-and-suite hotel, a USD 170 million project. The hotel received the Best Pre-Opening award in 2017. In 2019, it ranked first among St. Regis hotels worldwide for guest satisfaction, and its revenue reached €12 million.
Multi-property operations in Cyprus
Following an operational and asset management consultancy assignment for a British investment fund, he ran the Domina Zagarella Sicily Resort from 2022 to 2023. The Sicilian resort has 323 rooms and 47 villini.
In 2023, he became Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Stademos Hotels in Cyprus. There he oversaw Amara in Limassol and the Mediterranean Beach Hotel and Elysium in Paphos, representing 800 rooms, 1,200 employees and annual capital expenditure budgets of up to €14 million. He also served as interim General Manager of Amara, where he brought the hotel into line with Forbes and LQA standards and secured a partnership with Virtuoso.
Before arriving in Istanbul, he was Chief Executive of Liv Collections, a company specialising in serviced apartments, suites and villas, from November 2025 to June 2026. His appointment at Hyatt Regency Istanbul Ataköy forms part of the renewal of Hyatt’s leadership teams in the EAME region, where the group added fourteen hotels to its portfolio in 2026.
At a glance by The Hospitality Tribune
Luciano Sozzo appointed General Manager, Hyatt Regency Istanbul Ataköy
Effective August 2026; 284 rooms incl. 30 suites, 3,500 sqm of meeting space on the Marmara Sea
Previously CEO of Liv Collections and COO of Stademos Hotels, Cyprus (800 rooms, 1,200 staff)
Led the USD 170m development and pre-opening of The St. Regis Astana (Best Pre-Opening 2017)
40+ years in hospitality across Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Cyprus
