Marriott and Accor CEOs Disagree on How Quickly Europe’s Hotels Will Recover
Photo Credit: The CEOs of Accor and Marriott disagree on whether European hotels are too dependent on long-haul travel to recover quickly from coronavirus. Flickr / Jim Trodel
Skift Take
As long as Europe can create a strong network of travel bubbles or reopen as much of the Schengen Area without coronavirus travel restrictions, its hotel recovery timeline may surprise hotel executives like Marriott's Arne Sorenson.
The leaders of two of the world’s largest hotel companies have a different outlook on how the hotel industry will rebound from coronavirus.
The chief executives of major hotel brands like Marriott, Hilton, and Accor attended an NYU webinar Tuesday to discuss the pandemic’s impact on hotels around the world. All agreed coronavirus will likely result in the worst year in recorded history for the global hotel industry. But they had different takes on what the rebound will look like.
“Maybe it’s ironic in the sense that the U.S. and China are the most alike given how terrible the relationships are politically between the two countries,” Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson said. “They are the two big markets most dependent on domestic travel, and they will be the first to come back.”
