Marriott President and CEO Arne Sorenson has said the hotel industry won’t be permanently scarred by the coronavirus pandemic, but admitted temporary setbacks would be painful. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Travel and Leisure Conference, he said hotels had faced difficult times in the past, including the 1991 recession, the bursting in 2001 of the tech bubble and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This crisis was worse than any of them, he admitted, but he insists the sector will eventually bounce back. “I don’t think it will look that much different afterwards than it did before [coronavirus],” Sorenson said. The new acceptance of technological advances such as web conferencing and remote work is likely to hit revenues, but the effect would not be permanent. “I think group travel will be the slowest of the segments to come back, but I think group will generally come back,” he said, but he was also realistic. “It may take a few years to get back to the levels we were at before. Don’t mistake my words as Pollyannaish.” Remarkably, he noted that the company is already placing ads to attract new workers in Chengdu and in Wuhan. The hotels Marriott has re-opened in the United States are currently operating at better than 20 percent occupancy, said Sorenson.
