USA TODAYHotel CEOs talk security, technology and room serviceUSA TODAY2017 posed new and old challenges for the hotel industry. Issues of security emerged after a gunman opened fire on a crowd in Las Vegas from his hotel room. The number of international tourists to the U.S. dropped.
Most recently, the Marriott International CEO penned a piece urging governments to implement smarter ways to deal with safety and security in travel. And before that, he also wrote an open letter to then President-Elect Trump.
Arne Sorenson is not the kind of hotel CEO who likes to stay quiet about the most pressing issues impacting not only the hotel business, but travel overall.
many travelers continue to turn to online travel agencies such as Expedia and Booking.com and last-minute booking apps to look for deals rather than going straight to the hotels.
Hotels continued to fill their rooms. And in-room technology improved.
Participating in our annual roundtable were: David Kong, chief executive officer of Best Western Hotels and Resorts; Elie Maalouf, CEO for the Americas at InterContinental Hotels Group; Patrick Pacious, president and CEO of Choice Hotels International; and Jamie Sabatier, CEO of Two Roads Hospitality.
Only two countries are seeing visitation go down. That’s the USA and Turkey. Given the strength of the global economy, you would expect it would be stronger. We’re losing international market share, and hopefully, we can be more welcoming. There’s a sense that for some visitors, we are not.
We actually haven’t seen that decline. On the contrary, we’ve seen a pretty healthy increase in international arrivals into our hotels. Having said that, if you compare what we spent on marketing for our country compared to some of the other countries, we pale by comparison. We have to step up our marketing efforts in the USA. We also need to work on making our country more welcoming in the sense that the visa process sometimes takes way too long. The rhetoric from Washington should be more welcoming and more supportive.
