let's bring in Joan Bettarini, chief financial officer at
Hyatt, Joan glad to have you on this morning
. You know, consumers obviously dealing with inflation,
sky high inflation, everything is higher. We talk
about this all the time gas goods but when it
comes to the travel sector, Consumers seem to be
unfazed and willing to spend to the tune that Hyatt
is predicting a really strong travel season amid these these
inflationary pressures. Can you just talk a little bit
about the data out in the last 24 hours that
you guys have released? Really showing that consumers and
customers are prioritizing experiences over goods. Yeah, we've
actually seen a great momentum since the beginning of this
year, month over month and going into the second
quarter and months of april and May. We've seen
growing demand for all segments that we serve. The
leisure traveler, the business traveler and groups events that
are coming back to booking and wanting to get together
in person. As we look at the summer travel
, I can give you some statistics we are expecting
. We've got on the books a 15% increase on
a global basis in demand over the summer months from
June to August and that would be in our Emmy
Southwest Asia region and in our Americas region And in
our resorts in Latin America and the Caribbean, those
numbers for this summer months are 30% over 2019.
So we're expecting a very strong travel demand in in
the summer and it's it's very encouraging as you look
at also at group travel which in which is what
was in our resilience yesterday that in the month of
May, our group bookings for the rest of the
year Are 40% over the signings for this year are
40% over 2019. So a lot of pent up
demand coming back and I'm here in New York and
you can feel the energy on the streets, the
leisure travelers and we're here at a conference where there's
hundreds of people in the hospitality industry attending this conference
and talking about what's happening in the industry, very
exciting. Some of those numbers are fascinating to me
. Even the group travel, you know, my
family has a kind of family trip planned for this
summer this summer really after two years of not being
able to get together. I wonder if that's,
you know, part of what we're seeing with group
travel numbers, people willing to spend to kind of
not only have a vacation but a vacation with loved
ones, they haven't been able to see in a
meaningful way over the course of the last two years
. You know, seeing the data that has come
out yesterday with you guys and then pivoting back the
last couple of weeks when you guys have earnings.
It really does show already the robust picture that we're
seeing in travel. I mean in your earnings leisure
demand reaching record highs when you look at all of
this in totality. How does high it really plan
to build on this momentum in this next quarter and
then what is, it could be the year of
revenge travel? Yes, you know, so as
I mentioned, we serve, we're really well positioned
to take advantage of the recovery. We operate in
the high end of each segment that we serve.
So we that customer base has a lot of savings
and has a lot of desire to get back to
experiences. So it's certainly what we're seeing in the
demand. And you know, when I was in
our Cancun properties are new, all inclusive properties.
I saw what you're describing, multi generations of families
attending those are taking advantage of the opportunity to travel
there together between grand grand grand mothers and fathers and
families and Children. And those properties are really well
designed for that occasion of state. So um yeah
, we're seeing it across the board and particularly,
as I mentioned previously, business travel and groups,
corporate groups, corporations are actually wanting to get back
together, reinforcing elements of their culture that have that
, that they remain focused on and bringing their people
together. So that's what the high demand in the
group bookings that I mentioned earlier is coming from.
That being said, obviously inflation is really persistent.
We talked to a lot of macro, you know
, economists who look at this picture and say,
you know, at best case scenario, we don't
see inflation coming down in a meaningful way for at
least a year from now, Is there some level
of concern that at some point the consumer starts to
pull back and that that that does start to have
a meaningful impact. You know, it's we're not
seeing it, we're not seeing it in the data
. And evidence of that is really is really the
corporate bookings. So corporations are aware of, you
know, the macro factors and their booking at very
high rates. So, you know, they're,
what they're doing is they're prioritizing travel and they're prioritizing
people getting back together. So I think that's the
strong evidence that we're seeing today were certainly aware of
um you know, the need to be nimble and
um should the macro environment change that, of course
, we're not seeing today, we'll be ready for
it. We've we've done um, you know,
pretty amazing things over the past two years and we're
prepared. We've got the muscle built to be agile
and be responsive to the environment as as as the
macro may or may not change into the coming months
. I mean to your point, you do service
a higher income um you know, earner, so
to speak. And those have been on on phase
during this pandemic to the arts during this recovery and
reopening phase of the pandemic to the point where even
your data shows that I think one of the most
meaningful point of the data that I saw from your
report, I was relieved to your point Business travel
. That's up. I think over 20%. Although
it's below pre pandemic? It's still does show momentum
and then luxury travel that's a pretty meaningful. E
speaking of that, I think highest recently debuting an
inclusive collection, a new portfolio of nine luxury resorts
around the world to kind of cater to this boom
and luxury travel. Can you talk a little bit
more about that in terms of what makes you confident
that the heightened demand for all inclusive resorts, it's
going to be persistent. Yeah, we definitely definitely
see it in the data and the Apple leisure acquisition
was very complementary to our existing customer base. That
leisure high end traveler and we are we're experiencing it
into the demand. It's it's positioned us as the
number one operator of global luxury resorts in the world
. So we have we are well positioned here to
serve that customer base today and well into the future
. Yeah, I actually just last night before I
kind of realized this interview book the Hyatt in venice
, a nice luxury resort kind of there for for
this upcoming summer. So just speaking to your portfolio
and just how robust it is really quickly back to
business travel for a moment. That showed significant growth
right? I think I said over there was 24%
of the actual number, correct me if I'm wrong
in the data point That that's seen momentum and growth
a little bit shy of where we're at, you
know 2019 and pre pandemic. But I wonder what
is high it doing or is there a priority to
try and lure more of that business travel back into
kind of this revenge travel season that we're seeing.
Mm hmm. Well, you know, we're seeing
some of our largest corporate clients returning to travel.
Some of that was driven by the return to office
and some of the considerations that corporations were making we're
making at the time. But you know what we
heard maybe 12 months ago was some companies saying you
know, travel is going to be a fraction of
what it was um when we're on the other side
of this and what we're seeing is those same customers
actually coming back at levels very close to what we
experience pre pandemic. So I think it's evolving and
corporate customers and corporate business travelers are really wanting to
get back on the road. Especially those consultants who
are revenue generating and technology companies who really want to
get out and see their clients. They see others
doing it. And and it's there's nothing like being
in person Before I have to let you go here
. I want to end on a fun note.
In terms of some of the most popular locations and
destinations for summer of 2022. What is high?
It's seeing right now. Well right now, europe
is very strong with respect to leisure traveler you mentioned
. I think I think I heard you say you
mentioned you're going to venice. I was in Yeah
, I was in paris two weeks ago visiting our
hotels there and the city is just electric, so
much energy and and events are coming back. The
Premier League Championship was there and the french open and
Monaco had the Grand prix. So with these events
coming up there, people are wanting to get to
those experiences and they're coming. Yeah. Like I
said yesterday I was booking travel yesterday for this summer
and you can tell by the hotel prices that the
demand is. Certainly there people are in europe or
planning to be in europe this upcoming summer. Really
appreciate your time and your insight, joan butter reading
, chief financial officer at Hyatt.