Travel, Tourism & Hospitality
Leisure, domestic travel set to increase: Accor Chairman
Leisure and domestic will increase much more rapidly than business travel in the next four years, said Accor Chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin in a CNN Marketplace Europe programme.
Leisure and domestic will increase much more rapidly than business travel in the next four years, said Accor Chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin in a CNN Marketplace Europe programme.
Hosted by Richard Quest from Copenhagen, CNN explored how businesses are enticing tourists back to Europe and what the future of the tourism industry looks like across the continent.
As Europe’s tourist hotspots salvage what is left of summer, CNN’s Nina dos Santos spoke to Bazin about what hotel customers are looking for.
Bazin said the balance between business and leisure travel will feel the effects of Covid-19 for a while longer and may take a while to reach pre-pandemic levels, “It’s going to settle back probably to what it was pre-pandemic, but that’s going to be four years from now. For the next four years leisure, domestic will increase much more rapidly than business travel.”
Despite job losses in the last year, Bazin says Accor is actively recruiting people again as tourism reopens across Europe.
“Accor hires every year 80,000 new people. Why? Because we open one hotel a day, which is 365 hotels per year, in which I need 50,000 new people. It’s a time for us to continue hiring a lot of people.”
Bazin also discussed how furlough schemes have impacted the hotel industry. He said many workers are reluctant to return and that companies should work to improve conditions if they want to attract staff back to their roles. “Maybe we have to do a better job to give a better identity and to basically spend more time with our own employees as much as we spent time with our clients.”
In Paris, CNN’s Saskya Vandoorne examined how, as international travellers return to the city, tourists are looking beyond the traditional attractions to explore overlooked corners of Parisian history.
This trend of tourists wanting unique and meaningful experiences is something that tour guide Kevi Donat has benefitted from with his ‘Le Paris Noir’ walking tour, focusing on the lesser known Black history in France.
He says tourists want something different after the pandemic. “They realise that travel is something precious, that has been gone, and Paris is always a good idea. And now when they travel they want something unique, they want something authentic.”
CNN’s Anna Stewart reported on the rise in virtual reality (VR) tourism, fuelled by the pandemic. In Lapland, one company has been using VR 360° videos to bring experiences to tourists in their homes.
Chad Blakely, CEO and founder of Lights Over Lapland, explained: “Pandora’s box has been opened and people understand now that they can travel round the planet without leaving their homes.”
After posting the VR videos, which cost around $12,000 to make, the company says its web traffic quadrupled within a week. For many tourists, the videos serve as inspiration rather than a replacement, with Blakely saying: “I believe that some people that see the VR tour will never come to visit, just because it’s out of reach. But, I also believe that the VR tours will create interest and will lead people to come to our tours.”