Coronavirus and Travel

Blackstone wants to capitalize on the upside of a travel recovery and invest in leisure and hospitality assets, but who doesn’t? There’s a ton of capital waiting on the sidelines competing for potential deals, which may not be that much of an opportunity after prices go up in bidding wars.

Going for organic growth by tapping into already thriving sectors and industries at a community level, and aligning with government projects, are just two ways cities can plan better events and speed up their economic recovery.

Destination marketing organizations faced the ultimate agility test during the pandemic, with funding sources tied to hotel taxes stripped. It is a wake-up call to diversify finances and strategy to have some level of resilience for the next crisis.

All-inclusive resorts are always going to be dominated by leisure travel, but it's a smart move by Hilton to position these properties for some level of corporate meetings and events. Leisure traveler tastes aren't the only ones that changed over the span of the pandemic.

The 2020 Tokyo Games will be a big financial hit for Japan's tourism sector, but vaccines now under way plus pent-up demand and infrastructure boosts could make it come out of this tough stretch a winner — sooner than one might think.

It took China longer than usual to get over its latest outbreak, even though the country takes a tougher approach than most in curbing the spread of Covid. Vaccines can help prevent another wave of lockdowns and brutal declines in demand amid a surge of cases around the world.

Mexico’s score increased to 100 index points, which indicates that the country’s travel industry has fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels. A momentous occasion, but a closer look shows that not all sectors are back to normal.

Weekend crowds on city streets don’t necessarily translate to sold-out hotels, but the optics threaten the hotel industry’s already long-shot push for targeted economic relief from the federal government.

For a nation that relies on tourism as a significant engine of growth — the sector had contributed around 13 percent to the gross domestic product — it's time for national and local government officials to move in one direction and attack the Covid problem together.

The U.S. hotel sector is performing relatively well this summer, but there is too much uncertainty heading into fall in cities that rely on business travelers. Hotel companies shouldn’t take a few months of strong performance as a signal to reintroduce brand standards and costly renovation mandates.