out by Mark Hoplamazian , president and CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corp ., is the ownership structure of hotels in the country . “ What ’ s occurred in the last two years in India is public ownership of hotels ,” he said . Hyatt has around 50 hotels in the country and for many years has been in partnership with the Saraf Group , jointly operating Juniper Hotels , which has a portfolio of seven Hyatt-affiliated hotels . There is staggering motivation , he said , for public ownership — inherent growth and skyrocketing profitability . “ Now you ’ ve got real institutional capital formation in a market that was dominated by families and small groups . We ’ re talking about significant money getting raised . This is a completely new beginning of a publicly owned asset class , where capital formation will be easier
THERE ARE CONSUMERS AT THE LOWER SPECTRUM OF THE ECONOMY THAT ARE TAPPED OUT A BIT AND DEMAND IS A LITTLE BIT MORE CHALLENGING
– CHRIS NASSETTA , PRESIDENT AND CEO , HILTON
THE BEST DAYS ARE STILL AHEAD FOR THIS INDUSTRY
– ELIE MAALOUF , PRESIDENT AND CEO , IHG HOTELS & RESORTS
and easier . It ’ s coming at exactly the right time .”
CORPORATE COMEBACK In November 2020 , Bill Gates said that more than 50 % of business travel and more than 30 % of days in the office would go away in a post-pandemic world . He has since been proved wrong . Corporate travel four years later has come back , though it ’ s a bit uneven and it looks a bit different than it did before .
“ I have a lot of respect for Bill Gates , but he got that one 100 % wrong ,” Hoplamazian said . “ We ’ re still growing leisure on a very high pace the last two years compounded , but this year , the big change is business travel .” Hoplamazian noted that business travel in New York , for instance , is up some 20 %.
There has been a shift in how corporate travel looks . Small- and medium-sized enterprises , or SMEs , led the way in 2021 and 2022 , Hoplamazian said , adding that Hyatt ’ s corporate accounts through April were up 12 % year-to-date and total business transient up 6 %. “ The whole segment for us is growing ,” he said . “ We haven ’ t seen one month that it hasn ’ t gotten better . It is going to be distributed in much the same way as we saw pre-pandemic , because people see the value .”
Another person who shared in some of what Gates said on corporate travel is Accor ’ s Bazin . Three years ago he said that he believed that 25 % of international business travel would go away forever . He doubled down on that statement : “ I think it ’ s still true ,” he said . “ It ’ s a different business travel — the guys going from Seattle to New York or Seattle to London , I guarantee you , half of those guys , individual businessmen , are reducing by half .”
He said that the gap is being filled by the SMEs , where they meet more often because of flexible working .
In China , Marriott ’ s Capuano said business travel was back but also different than before . “ It ’ s not back in the same mix of cross-border and domestic that we saw in 2018 and 2019 . It ’ s back largely on the shoulders of domestic ,” he said .
Meanwhile , it ’ s group business that has come back gangbusters , the CEOs said . “ Much of the media coverage is around business and leisure transient , but group is the strongest performing segment right now ,” said Capuano . And the travel booking window has shifted , he said . “ We were talking about really short booking windows — that ’ s inverted completely .”
It ’ s actually made it difficult on sales teams because , as Capuano pointed out , some groups are looking to book as far as seven years out . “ I ’ m not sure you want to lock in those rates ,” he said , to which Eisen asked if it was because he thought rates would come down . Almost in unison the panel said , “ No , they ’ ll go up !”
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