Hilton Knows Hotels’ Global Expansion Opportunities Are Enormous

Ever wonder why real estate interests are pouring so much money into hotel construction and investors are funneling so many dollars into Airbnb and its peers?

It’s because hotels’ and the sharing economy’s global expansion opportunities are enormous.

Hilton Worldwide encapsulated it all in an investor presentation that it showed off at the Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference in Orlando earlier this month. One slide says it all:

Source: Hilton Worldwide based on STR, UNWTO, World Bank, OECD
Note: Hotel rooms as of December 2014, Population as of 2013.

While there were 15.7 hotels for every 1,000 people in the U.S. at the end of 2014, there were just 1.4 hotels in China, 1.1 in Brazil and 0.2 (as in two-tenths of one percent) in India per 1,000 people.

Hilton used the slide to tie that opportunity into the healthy growth of the global middle class and global tourist arrivals as very healthy trends propelling future growth.

Despite its asset light strategy, Hilton Worldwide is seizing on the opportunity, claiming to be the global leader with an 18.7 percent market share of hotels under construction.

It’s a huge opportunity for hotel chains, independent properties and alternative lodging types as they consider new markets around the world.