CONFERENCE REWIND
YOU DIVE IN AND TRY TO DISSECT EMERGING MIDDLE CLASSES . WHERE IT IS GROWING THE FASTEST TODAY IS INDIA . SO YOU KNOW THAT INDIA WILL BE THE NEXT PLAY
– SÉBASTIEN BAZIN , PRESIDENT AND CEO , ACCOR
INDIA ’ S LEAP In a CEO panel during NYU IHIIC , moderator and CNBC anchor Sara Eisen , who hosted the same panel one year ago , asked how hotel demand had cooled off since last year . “ We don ’ t have the benefit of the really easy year-over-year comparisons , but if you listen to our earnings calls , you heard some consistent things ,” said Tony Capuano , president and CEO of Marriott International . Those themes were consistent growth in performance across sectors and geographies , though not , as he admitted , the “ eye-popping double-digit record growth .” Though one region , he said , is performing more optimally : Asia Pacific . And within APAC , it ’ s India that all the hotel company CEOs salivate over and see as the next big frontier for growth .
STR might have a hard time forecasting the future , but Sébastien Bazin , president and CEO of Accor , fashions himself a soothsayer . “ This is an industry that is probably the easiest industry to predict ,” he said . “ It ’ s 90 % correlated with demography . You dive in and try to dissect emerging middle classes . Where it is growing the fastest today is India . So you know that India will be the next play .”
Bazin said the other correlation beyond population growth is infrastructure . He alluded to infrastructure buildouts in the U . S . between 1965 and 1985 , then in China from 1990 to 2010 . “ We are seeing the exact similar pattern in India ,” he said , “ 2020 to 2040 .”
Fellow CEO Nassetta was as bullish on India , citing many of the same reasons as Bazin . He called China and India the two biggest travel and tourism markets in the world . “ India is on the move and will start moving a lot faster ,” he said . “ All you have to do is look at what ’ s happening in infrastructure — all the airports and highways and roads that are being built . Over the next 10 or 20 years , it will be developing travel and tourism at a much faster pace .”
The premise for India optimism is rooted in the idea of the upward mobility of the country ’ s population . It is not based on the idea of inbound travel but domestic . “ Until the last five years , it used to be 70 %
I HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR BILL GATES , BUT HE GOT THAT ONE 100 % WRONG
– MARK HOPLAMAZIAN , PRESIDENT AND CEO , HYATT HOTELS CORP ., ON BILL GATES WRONGLY PREDICTING THE DEATH OF BUSINESS TRAVEL .
MUCH OF THE MEDIA COVERAGE IS AROUND BUSINESS AND LEISURE TRANSIENT , BUT GROUP IS THE STRONGEST PERFORMING SEGMENT RIGHT NOW
– TONY CAPUANO , PRESIDENT AND CEO , MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL
inbound , 30 % domestic ,” IHG ’ s Maalouf said . He now says those numbers are flipping . “ Household wealth is moving up . Businesses are working .”
One of the other shifts in India , pointed
8 hotelsmag . com July / August 2024