Choice Hotels’ Next Try at a Wyndham Takeover

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, December 13. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

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Episode Notes

Choice Hotels believes it’s taken another key step toward its planned takeover of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Choice Hotels said on Tuesday it had bought enough Wyndham stock to nominate candidates to Wyndham’s board, reports Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill. 

Choice Hotels said it purchased more than $110 million of Wyndham stock. In addition, it is putting forth an exchange offer to present to Wyndham shareholders for a vote next year. Wyndham said its board is reviewing the offer and would give a recommendation to its shareholders within 10 days. 

But Wyndham stated Choice’s offer seems to be unchanged from one it previously rejected. 

Next, Canada won’t surpass its pre-Covid visitor numbers until 2025. One reason why is China’s ongoing ban on group travel into Canada, writes Global Tourism Reporter Dawit Habtemariam. 

Meaghan Ferrigno, Destination Canada’s chief data and analytics officer, said Canada’s tourism industry would get a major boost from Beijing ending the ban. Ferrigno added that Destination Canada wasn’t currently marketing group travel in China, instead focusing on individual Chinese travelers. Tourists from China spent the most in Canada of any other group in 2019. 

Finally, flight attendants at Southwest Airlines recently overwhelmingly rejected a new contract. That’s a major sign of the widespread discontent many flight attendants are feeling, reports Edward Russell, editor of Skift publication Airline Weekly. 

Nearly two-thirds of Southwest flight attendants who voted rejected a contract that would have included pay increases of 36% over five years. Russell writes one issue was a lack of pay during the boarding and deplaning processes, with almost all U.S. flight attendants only being paid when an aircraft door is closed. 

American Airlines flight attendants have authorized a potential strike. Russell notes that if American flight attendants were to go through with one, it would have a significant impact on the U.S. airline industry. American flies nearly a fourth of all U.S. domestic flights.