IHG CEO Sees Predictions of Business Travel Decline as ‘Exaggerated’
Executive also sees “new drivers” of hotel use as employees work remotely >>
by: Harvey Chipkin
The death of business travel has been exaggerated, according to Keith Barr, CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts, speaking on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. He said that people have been saying it's going to be down 50% or 30%. but he thinks it's going to be impacted “on the margins” as some business trips are replaced by technology. He said business travel is not going to come back all at once because “some of these things take years of planning for conventions and conferences and big groups.” Travel budgets, said Barr, will gradually increase as people have more and more confidence to travel. Barr also saw new drivers as people work remotely. He explained that with the possibility of smaller offices and less meeting space, companies are going to have to use hotels as gathering places to do things they’ve done in their offices in the past. He concluded, “I think the business recovery will be more robust than people are giving credit for.”
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