Global Hotel Alliance hosted its inaugural CEO conference in South Africa on April 12, at the Table Bay hotel, Waterfront.
The conference brought together experts and business people from its 40 hotel brands, representing over 800 hotels across 100 countries.
The event aimed to examine the state of the travel industry and anticipate trends in 2023.
As the first CEO conference of its kind in South Africa, 20 years in the industry, it offered an excellent opportunity for leaders to share insights and strategies on how to navigate the industry’s ever-changing landscape.
We are delighted to announce that the future of the travel industry looks bright and promising, with industry leaders such as Chris Hartley, CEO of the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), Graham Wood, Group COO for Sun International in South Africa, Peng Sum Choe, CEO of Pan Pacific Hotel Group, Simon Naudi, CEO of Corinthia Hotels, and Ramón Aragonés, CEO of NH Hotels leading the way.
Their expertise and vision for the industry has brought positive and optimistic news, seeing their contributions to the continued growth and success of the travel industry.
South Africa
For South Africa, it gives Wood great pleasure to announce that the hotel and resort sector has been leading the group’s recovery. Despite the setback caused by the Omicron variant in South Africa, the industry has shown significant improvement.
‘’We saw a recovery being domestic leisure lead, with strong weekend, domestic holiday leisure across all our properties,’’ Wood says. “Followed very quickly by a surge in conferencing.’’ So much so that they saw the need to exceed conference rooms by 25%.
Prior to Covid, the customer base was comprised of 85% international and 15% domestic visitors. However, in 2023, the ratio has shifted to 76% international and 24% domestic. Although the volume of customers has decreased, they have seen an increase in the quality of customers, with guests spending more on their stay.
‘’Across all our properties we are very strong, domestic leisure is strong and I’m glad to say that the international is growing stronger and stronger,’’ Wood says.
During the discussion, the representative for Asia, Peng Sum Choe, CEO of Pan Pacific Hotel Group, provided perspective on the travel industry in Singapore. He reported a significant rebound in the Australian and Singaporean markets in 2022, with visitor numbers exceeding 125% of the figures recorded in 2019.
“It will take another quarter before we see the full steam of Chinese coming in to Asia and Australia,’’ says Choe.
“We are already 89% without the Chinese, when they do come, it will be at a much higher rate.’’
He says they are benefiting from travellers who are choosing longer stays, also known as bleisure travel. Sustainability is a key factor and consumers are looking at sustainable design when choosing their stay. This includes factors such as: waste control, water, electricity and many more which are initiatives that hotel groups are looking to reflect as customers are passionate about sustainability in the travel sector.
Europe
Recovery for Europe is based on the fact that income is back to where it was prior to Covid. Simon Naudi, CEO of Corinthia Hotels says: “It doesn’t mean we have the same amount of customers, but less customers but they are paying far higher rates than pre-Covid.’’
The year has been quite challenging, as Europe has never witnessed inflation of this magnitude, which is new to many Europeans. However, despite the obstacles, there is an optimistic outlook for the travel industry. Nevertheless, caution is advised to avoid getting carried away.
Every travel experts shared their enthusiasm for boosting employment rates in the tourism and travel industry, as well as making better marketing efforts to increase awareness of hotel groups.
Read the latest issue of IOL Travel digital magazine here.