“When a third of the world’s population does not have access to drinking water, we cannot continue to create hotels as before. » When asked about the future, the boss of AccorHotels ensures that he reconciles the development of his group with climate and biodiversity issues. Sébastien Bazin, at the head of the sixth largest hotel group in the world for ten years, affirms: adaptation will be in the coming years “largest construction site”. Moreover, it was environmental issues that pushed him, he said, in May 2022, to abandon the opening of a Raffles in Mykonos, Greece.
Does he intend to moderate the group’s growth? Particularly in countries that are not very concerned about their carbon footprint? Not at all. “Accor will continue to grow where we need it while respecting the planet”insists the CEO, whose mandate runs until 2026, implying that only Europe would want to slow down.
In fact, the needs are there. Supported by the growth of the middle classes in emerging countries, demand for hotel rooms is expected to grow by 5 to 7% over the next forty years, while on the other hand, the supply available will continue for a long time. rate of 1.5 to 2%. “We had a ratio of one to two in the lack of room; we are going to go from one to three”he insists, while the number of travelers could explode from 1.5 billion to 2 billion in the coming decade.
India, the largest source of growth
Over the past ten years, Accor has continually sought growth drivers in countries with strong demographic dynamics. In what the group calls “Greater China”, which notably includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, the hotel giant has opened nearly 640 hotels since 1984, while 390 are under development. “In five years maximum, the Chinese domestic hotel industry will have surpassed that of the United States in size, having started forty years later, in the 2000s,” he predicts, recognizing that the only way to establish yourself in this country is to do so with the help of a local actor.
Accor sold its stake in the Chinese hotel group Huazhu between 2019 and 2023 – “the most lucrative operation the group has carried out” – but the company still has 12% of its capital, Jin Jiang, the number one hotel industry in this country.
In his opinion, Chinese players seem less keen today than they were in the 2010s to invest in the European hotel industry – “bad financial transactions” And “a growing domestic market” distracted them somewhat. This situation could, however, only be temporary; especially since the world number one or two will undoubtedly, according to him, be Chinese before long (it is currently the American Marriott). “A group like Jin Jiang is already fourth in the world, with around 14,000 hotels and Huazhu is not far from 10,000 establishments,” explains Sébastien Bazin. According to the MKG ranking, Jin Jiang already has more hotels than Marriott but not more rooms.
You have 59.11% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.