Marriott Execs Say Blended Travel Here to Stay With New Product Opportunities
Photo Caption: A branded residential concept illustrating indoor and outdoor living from 2018. Source: Marriott International.
Skift Take
Marriott executives believe that the rise of mixed business and leisure trips poses challenges for tracking guest behavior. But the trend also creates opportunities to offer new products.
Top executives at Marriott International said they believe the pandemic surge in travelers having blended trip purposes of both business and leisure will have a long-term impact on the hotel sector. The growing trend will affect everything from data collection to the types of properties developers want to fund.
"Blended trip purpose is a trend that likely will not only continue, but accelerate," said CEO Anthony Capuano, who leads the world’s largest hospitality company, said on Tuesday at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles.
"Do I believe absolute demand numbers will come back and blow past where we were in 2018 and 2019?" Capuano said. "Absolutely. Will I be able to tell you at some point that we were this many million business transient room nights in 2019 and now we've passed that? Not necessarily."
Before the pand
