Hotel Magnate Strips Porn From All Properties
By JOANNA PRISCO
Scandinavians have often been heralded as arbiters of taste when it comes to fashion and design. But now humanitarianism may become the new haute frontier.
Petter Stordalen, owner of Scandinavia’s largest hotel chain, Nordic Choice Hotels, has decided to remove pay-TV porn movies from all 171 of his properties and replace them with modern art.
“We believe it is a natural part of our social responsibility to not support an industry that contributes to trafficking,” Stordalen said in a release announcing the change.
Since 2012, the hotel group has worked with UNICEF on its “Free to Grow” project, which is focused on the prevention of trafficking and providing aid to child victims of sexual exploitation.
The first Stordalen property to put the new mandate into effect was The Thief, a boutique waterfront hotel in Oslo. The pay-TV porn movies have already been replaced with modern video “art on demand,” inspired no doubt by Stordalen’s own passion for collecting.
The sixth richest man in Norway, Stordalen is used to making waves in the hospitality industry. In 2006, Nordic Choice Hotels became the first in the world to ban smoking in all rooms.
