Hilton’s Recovery Won’t Depend on People Flying Again: CEO
Photo Credit: The hotel industry can significantly recover without the airline industry, Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta said on a first quarter earnings call Thursday. Wikimedia / Farragutful
Skift Take
Airlines may lag hotels in their recovery timeline, but both industries need more coronavirus testing and treatments to have a shot at returning to peak performance levels.
Coronavirus crippled the global travel industry, but human behavior in the economic recovery lends itself to a quicker bounce back for hotels over airlines, according to Hilton’s chief executive.
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta, like many hotel executives and analysts, anticipates local and drive-to travel will recover first from the coronavirus downturn in travel. Occupancy rates cratered to the point where Hilton temporarily suspended operations at 950 hotels until demand returns to a level justifying reopening. But Hilton won’t need airlines to rebound in lockstep for the hotel company to begin its own bounce back from coronavirus.
“I think airlines are way behind. Those that are willing to travel are only willing to go so far from home,” Nassetta said Thursday on a first quarter earnings call. “We will show recovery at a faster pace because we can accommodate the kind of demand airlines can’t.”
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