This is a collection of the most creative restaurant designs in the world, from risky and modern to traditional and laid back. This compilation of vivid photographs and detailed layouts gives examples ...
Investors are starting to come back to the hotel sector, but they’re going to want a lot of bang for limited bucks
| Tweet |
Even though I attended only one day of the 32nd Annual New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference (boy, that's a mouthful), it was easy to pick up on the sense of optimism. One of the most bullish voices was that of Kenneth Chenault, chairman and ceo of American Express. “We're now seeing encouraging signs of strength,” he said during his luncheon speech. He had the numbers to back that up. American Express' billings in the travel are tourism sector were up 16 percent in the first quarter of 2010 over last year. Lodging was up 6 percent over last year alone. The bounce back for travel and tourism was stronger in Australia, Canada, France and UK compared to the U.S. he said, but added he was “proud to announce that the tide is turning. The trends are up and there are no longer brackets around numbers (to indicate losses)."
Chenault outlined key changes in consumer, business and investor behavior in 2009 which are carrying over into 2010. More cautious now, consumers became born-again savers and deleveraged their balance sheets. Businesses changed the size of their structures, focused on revenue generation and had more competition for loyal customers. Finally, investors wanted less risk, more cost efficiencies and sustainable growth potential. These are the new trends until the economy really picks up.
He signed off with a prediction that travel and tourism will trumpet the advent of social networking i.e. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. “Travel and tourism is the industry of connections and becomes the common denominator inviting strangers to make introductions. Travel being the industry of service has a clear edge and will increasingly become more important going forward,” he said.
Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist, The Economic Outlook Group, took that a step further, saying we are now only one to two quarters away from the peak prior to the recession. He assessed three possible scenarios for where the economy's headed and the probability for occurrence this way: 1) We can have an economy that slips back into a recession, commonly known as the double-dip (15 percent chance); 2) the U.S. recovery turns lackluster (35 percent chance) and 3),which he believes to have a 50 percent probability, we'll have a healthy economic recovery. “We are in store for a v-shaped rebound where consumers are back!” Baumohl said. “The flight to safety has been and always will be the safety of the U.S. dollar. We have three years of pent up demand that is being unleashed and household debt fell for the first time since we've recorded debt in 1945.”
Baumohl confirmed Chenault's data that lodging and food service have been expanding for months in terms of revenue and new hiring. He also touched upon key concerns such as the Eurozone which is “flawed by its current design but not doomed.” Regarding China, Baumohl said the decision to lift the RMB will be delayed to late 2010 or 2011. He further went on to say that China's real estate bubble will neither burst nor cause an economic crisis.
In his opinion, the bottom line is that there are external threats but odds are they will not derail the U.S. recovery. As expected, there was a lot of reality checking. Many of the investors and operators shared the thinking of David Wyss, chief economist with Standard & Poor's. “At this time last year, the hotel sector was experiencing ‘synchronized syncing'-- akin to everyone walking off a cliff together,” says Wyss. “Panic has been replaced by fear. We've hit bottom which is defined as the industry not getting any worse. In other words, there is nowhere to go but up!”
That should be good news for hotel investors, operators and the design community. I'm already hearing firms talking about an uptick not only in RFPs, but actual commissions. Sure, they're smaller projects and budgets are tight but there's work out there. Finally.
Michael Schneider is the new publisher, ST Media Group, Hospitality Products, which includes both Hospitality Style and boutiqueDESIGN.
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
