Fouquet's Paris on the Champs-Élysées is one of the flagship hotels in the Barrière portfolio, which is undergoing an ambitious international expansion under fourth-generation family leadership.Courtesy of Fouquet's Paris Alexandre Barrière—the fourth-generation heir to the Barrière group, one of France’s oldest hospitality companies—says he only ever considered two careers. One was taking over the company founded by his family in 1912. The other: becoming a professional race car driver. “I really liked karting,” he told me during a recent interview at Fouquet’s New York, the French luxury hotel that opened in Tribeca in 2022 as the company’s first U.S. outpost. “But that was just a fantasy. Otherwise I never thought about doing anything else.”Barrière’s great-granduncle, François André, is widely credited with pioneering the modern luxury resort concept in the French seaside town of Deauville when he brought together hotels, casinos, restaurants and recreation into a single destination. Coco Chanel opened her first fashion boutique at the half-timbered Hotel Barrière Le Normandy Deauville in 1913.Alexandre Barrière, who now leads the fourth-generation family-owned Barrière group.couirtesy of Barrière groupOver the next century, the business expanded under successive generations of the Barrière family, becoming one of France’s best-known names in luxury hospitality. Its portfolio now ranges from the legendary Le Majestic in Cannes (overlooking the Croisette and synonymous with the Cannes Film Festival) to the iconic Fouquet’s Paris on the Champs-Élysées (a long-time gathering place for French politicians, artists and celebrities).A Family LegacyThe Barrière story is also one of family triumph and tragedy. In 1990, Barrière’s mother, Diane, took over the business after the sudden death of her father, Lucien. Five years later, she was critically injured in a plane crash but remained involved in the company despite years of debilitating pain before her death in 2001.“I made a promise to my mom that I would take over the company and make sure that it’s transmitted to the next generation,” says Barrière.He is fulfilling that promise. In 2023, Barrière and his sister, Joy Desseigne-Barrière, bought out the company’s longtime outside shareholder, French investment group Fimalac, restoring full family ownership for the first time in more than a decade.Regaining full family ownership helped position Barrière for its next phase. The company has grown to include 21 luxury hotels, 33 casinos, one gaming club and nearly 200 restaurants and bars. The group generated €1.5 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025 and employs nearly 7,000 people.Hotel Barrière Le Normandy Deauville, one of the historic properties that helped establish the Barrière family as a leader in French luxury hospitality.courtesy of Hotel Barrière Le Normandy Deauville Barrière believes being family-owned gives the company an advantage in an industry increasingly dominated by global hotel brands and investment firms. “I think that family capitalism is a model that has a lot of advantages compared to gigantic corporation,” he says. “They think quarter to quarter. We think generation to generation.”Waking Up A Sleeping BeautyWhen Barrière and his sister took over, the company had long been a dominant name in French hospitality and gaming, but its brands had become overly complex and underrecognized outside France. “I saw the group as a sleeping beauty,” he says, comparing the company to the fairytale character. “When my sister and I took over, we decided to wake up that sleeping beauty.”One of the siblings’ first moves was simplifying a brand structure that had become increasingly confusing. Historically, the Fouquet’s name had appeared on everything from luxury hotels to neighborhood brasseries. Under the new strategy, the company introduced Barrière Collection as the umbrella name for its luxury hotel portfolio while reserving the Fouquet's brand for a smaller group of flagship luxury hotels in destinations such as Paris, New York, Courchevel and St. Barth.“Before, Fouquet’s was at the same time the best hotel in New York and a brasserie in the suburbs of Paris,” he says. “We needed coherence. We needed logic.”At the same time, the company has accelerated international expansion. Fouquet’s Mykonos, a 74-room hotel overlooking Ornos Bay, just opened this spring with a beach club, spa and the group’s signature French brasserie. More projects are on the horizon, including Maison Barrière Principe Real in Lisbon, a casino in Tirana, Albania and a mixed-use Fouquet’s property with a hotel and residences in Miami’s Design District.The focus on international growth has attracted praise from Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, whose investment company Fimalac owned a 40% stake in Barrière until Alexandre and Joy bought it back in 2023. “I have known Alexandre for around fifteen years. In my professional life, I have rarely seen a young man so determined to carry forward the legacy of his grandfather and of his mother, who passed away so tragically,” Ladreit de Lacharrière told me in an interview. “I am pleased to see that the achievements and projects [Alexandre and his sister] are pursuing go even beyond what I had expected.”Fouquet's Mykonos, which opened in 2026 overlooking Ornos Bay, is one of the newest additions to Barrière's growing international portfolio.Divercity Architects/courtesy of Fouquet's MykonosFormer French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who served on Barrière’s board until 2024, agrees. “I have watched Alexandre Barrière grow up. I have seen him build himself, step by step, in the shadow of a name so heavy to bear and a family history that was at times difficult to embrace,” Sarkozy told me by email. “Alexandre could have chosen to simply administer an inheritance. He chose exactly the opposite: to take risks, to modernize, to expand internationally, to transform deeply while never betraying the Barrière spirit.”Beyond CasinosGrowth, however, isn’t simply about opening more hotels. A priority has been reducing the company’s dependence on the French casino business by diversifying its revenue streams. One example is Beefbar, the Monaco-born restaurant concept that Barrière is expanding across its portfolio. A new Beefbar recently opened at Le Majestic Cannes, with poolside dining and summer DJ sets.Barrière also sees wellness as one of hospitality’s biggest opportunities. The company is developing a longevity-focused program in the French resort destination of La Baule, reflecting what he believes is growing demand from travelers who want vacations that help them live healthier. “It’s not only about living longer,” he says. “It’s also about living better.”But he also acknowledges that not every bet pays off. The company recently exited an online casino venture in Switzerland. “When it’s not working, it’s not useful to close your eyes and keep going,” he says. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and when you lose, you try again. You never give up.”For all the talk of expansion, new brands and international growth, Barrière says the company’s greatest strength isn’t its hotels or casinos. It’s the people behind them. People like Roger Bastoni, the legendary concierge at Le Majestic Cannes, who spent more than four decades with the company before handing the role to his son, Gilles.Beefbar at Le Majestic Cannes is one example of how Barrière is evolving its historic hotels with new dining and lifestyle experiences.courtesy of Le Majestic Cannes“I watched Joy and Alexandre grow up, gradually stepping into their roles with seriousness, commitment and deep respect for what had been built before them,” Bastoni told me in an interview. “Because at its core, at the Majestic, as within Barrière, it has always been about high standards and loyalty over time.”Barrière returned to that idea repeatedly throughout our conversation. He spoke less about marble lobbies or luxury suites than about employees who have spent decades with the company, guests who have returned generation after generation and the relationships that have grown alongside the business itself.“Some of our colleagues have been there for 20, 30, 40 years,” he says. “I’ve been working with people that worked with my grandfather, that worked with my mother. They tell me incredible stories about what happened, and this gives you emotions and helps you see things differently. It’s not only about numbers, it’s about people.” More than a century after François André helped create the concept of the modern luxury resort in Deauville, Barrière sees himself as the caretaker of a family legacy, one he hopes will eventually be passed to a fifth generation.MORE FROM FORBES:ForbesHow A Former Luxury Hotel Executive Is Reimagining Cruising For A New GenerationBy Laura Begley BloomForbesThis 20-Year-Old Is Trying To Become The Youngest Person To Travel To Every CountryBy Laura Begley Bloom