HOSPITALITY expect a return to more normal performance


is a longer-term game. We need to get the message to teenagers coming into the workforce. How do you get the best of that group to come into hospitality? A study a couple of years ago on the appeal of different sectors to 15-to-20- year-olds found hospitality ranked only above mining and waste management. “We’ve just done some work for a client


in the Middle East, looking at best practice in recruitment for a hospitality workforce, and the systems that seem to work are where jobs in the industry are regarded as good jobs. In Switzerland, for example, there is an apprenticeship system. You get properly trained. People talk about Lausanne, but there are good technical hotel schools which teach people the trade. People come in, earn a good living and see career progression. If they work in a five- star hotel, that is well-regarded. If you tell somebody in other countries you work in a hotel, they shrug their shoulders.”


PROGRESS ON SUSTAINABILITY “A lot is being said and done because it’s the right thing to do from a corporate responsibility and marketing standpoint. You can’t be seen to do nothing. That said, we’ve not really made much progress. There are continual modest improvements, but has there been a step change? “The issue is you don’t get rewarded


for doing it. The customer is not rewarding you in a meaningful way. There are many surveys and, depending on who instructs the survey, either consumers are hugely driven by ESG [environmental, social and governance issues] or it doesn’t matter to them. It’s an influencing factor not a deciding factor for most people when they travel. If you give people a choice of staying in two identical hotels and one is ESG compliant in some way and the other one isn’t, they will stay at the ESG-compliant one. But before that, it’s about price, location and how many loyalty points you get. “Institutional investors and government


regulation are the key drivers of change, which means it’s not fast enough


46 Travel Weekly Insight Report 2024


The most interesting indicator [for 2024] is probably the US, where we’ve started to see a softening [in demand] and declines in certain markets


because we all know how long it takes for regulation and reporting to come in. “An eye-opener to us was a survey


around who, based on volume of voice, seems to care most about ESG. Everybody points to the younger generation, but if you look at who is making day-to- day meaningful changes like recycling or reducing their carbon footprint, it is people aged 45 to 50-plus. They are making changes, whereas younger generations shout about it but don’t adapt their behaviour. That younger group is becoming the largest in terms of travel and hospitality, and they’re not changing. That is a challenge. “Hospitality investors are taking sustainability seriously. If you’re a private equity investor with a five to seven- year hold period, a lot can change in that period. So, people are looking at it very seriously. They can see two major risks. One, guest perception changes and they stop coming. Two, the assets are not ESG compliant and institutional investors say, ‘We can’t invest in those types of properties anymore’.”


ALMOST two in five UK adults say they would


consider an ‘eco-friendly’ hotel for a holiday, but


only a small percentage do with the choices available (Figure 58)


IMPACT OF GENERATIVE AI “There is a lot of impressive technology in use around sales and marketing and back-of-house automation. But has there been a game-changing application


FIGURE 58: ‘WOULD CHOOSE ECO-FRIENDLY HOTEL FOR A HOLIDAY’


%


10 20 30 40 50


0 % UK adults 40% 41% 34%


22% 19% 16%


3% July 2019 18%


21% 16%


4% Jan 2020 Would consider Would not Do, already


26% 22%


14% 4% July 2023


20% 16%


5% Jan 2024 Don’t know Won’t travel Source: YouGov Base: 1,958-2,027 UK adults 21% 38%


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