Skift Take
Athletes go for gold at the Olympic Games, but hoteliers don't typically walk away with many prizes in the form of long-term revenue gains from the global mega-event.
A leading Japanese hotelier isn’t factoring next summer’s rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo into his company’s survival and recovery model from the coronavirus pandemic.
History shows it may be a smart strategy for anyone in the hotel industry.
Hoshino Resorts CEO Yoshiharu Hoshino mapped out an 18-month survival plan for his company, which includes brands like Risonare and Omo, after seeing demand drop by more than 90 percent in April and May. While that model accounts for waves of demand increases and even resurgences of the virus, Hoshino isn’t banking too much hope on the Olympics when typically all eyes would be on the host city.
“The Olympics is only a two or three-week event. It’s not big demand for us,” he said last week at Skift Forum Asia. “We don’t really count on Olympics demand to increase our annual performance for our hotels.”
There is plenty of reason for a hotel owner in Japan to hope for revenue-generating gold from next y
