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Video: Changing Guest Demographics and the Future of Hotels


Skift Take

All guests are not alike and hotel brands need to know how to talk to each of them.

Eric Pearson, chief information officer at InterContinental Hotels Group, addressed the topic of “The Right Way to Talk to Different Demographics Across the Guest Journey” at the Skift Global Forum.

Pearson dug into his data to explain how the growing prosperity of the global middle class and continuing access to new markets is driving the demand for more personalized hotel stays. In addition to the demographic shift, as guest behavior turns more frequently to mobile devices, booking windows change as does pricing. And in words that may not be welcome at IHG, the world's soon to be second larges hotel brand (if the Marriott-Starwood merger works), Pearson said "Big doesn’t beat small anymore. Fast beats slow."

This is the latest Skift Global Forum 2015 video we have posted. Over the rest of the month we’ll release each of the three dozen-plus presentations from the 2015 Skift Global Forum. To keep track of them all, bookmark Skift Global Forum.

Watch the video, above, for the full 24-minute presentation.

Learn More About the Skift Global Forum

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