Hotels in the U.S. continued their steady their pace of hiring in August, recording higher job growth in August than in July.
25.08.2023 - 13:55 / skift.com / Edward Russell / Rashaad Jorden / Peden Doma Bhutia / Wouter Geerts / Skift Research
Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, March 29. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
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Hotel companies have gotten better in recent years at reporting their environmental performances amid their push to reduce carbon emissions. However, Skift Research’s latest report reveals hotel brands still have blind spots in their reporting, especially the performance of their franchised hotels.
Skift Research investigated the environmental performance of the world’s six largest hotel companies. Senior Research Analyst Wouter Geerts writes all companies need to do a better job of measuring and reporting their so-called scope 3 emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions are divided into three scopes, and scope 3 includes emissions from franchised hotels.
Geerts notes that some companies have more comprehensive scope 3 coverage than others. Wyndham, the largest franchise holder of the companies Skift Research investigated, has very little scope 3 reporting. Prominent hotel brands have increasingly turned to franchising to help grow their portfolios.
Next, major U.S. airlines are still struggling to make a complete recovery coming out of the pandemic. United Airlines and American Airlines are cutting flights due to issues such as pilot shortages and aircraft delivery delays, reports Edward Russell, editor of Airline Weekly, a Skift brand.
United cited a pilot shortage as the reason it’s ending flights to Erie, Pennsylvania in June. Russell notes that’s a well-documented problem primarily affecting regional carriers. He adds that ongoing aircraft delivery delays have also made scheduling flights difficult. American suspended flights between Philadelphia and Madrid in May and Jue due to late deliveries of Boeing 787 jets.
Russell also writes the reduced flight schedules don’t come as a surprise, with Airbus and Boeing having consistently delivered planes late since last year.
Finally, airports across the Middle East need an enormous amount of infrastructure improvement to help meet the rising demand for air travel. How much? $151 billion, reports Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia in this week’s Middle East Travel Roundup newsletter.
The push to improve the region’s aviation infrastructure comes as Middle East airports are expected to handle more than 1 billion passengers by 2040. That’s up from 405 million in 2019. Bhutia writes that several countries around the Middle East have already unveiled massive airport projects, including Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials are planning to build one of the world’s largest airports.
Hotels in the U.S. continued their steady their pace of hiring in August, recording higher job growth in August than in July.
Hotel Indigo Guadalajara Expo draws on its rich cultural background to create an authentic neighborhood stay experience for guests.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, December 20, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Hotels added 26,000 new jobs in the United States in November, a small increase from the previous month despite the overall strong job growth numbers for the U.S. economy, especially the leisure and hospitality industry.
The Gulf region now has more than 170,000 hotel rooms under active development, which includes planning, final planning and under construction, according to research conducted at the end of September by STR, a hotel market intelligence and global benchmarking company. This active hotel development pipeline now equals 40 percent of the Gulf region’s existing hotel room inventory, a figure almost four times greater than the global average of 11 percent. The STR report estimates 135,560 existing rooms in Saudi Arabia with an active pipeline of 82,639 rooms, with total room inventory projected for 2030, at over 218,000 rooms. Similarly for the United Arab Emirates, the research currently tracks more than 202,000 existing rooms with an active pipeline of 48,910 rooms, a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms by 2030. “Interestingly, Ras Al Khaimah, is second only to Dubai, with 5,076 rooms in its pipeline, almost the same amount as Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah combined,” said Danielle Curtis, exhibition director of Arabian Travel Market. The research had been commissioned by Arabian Travel Market.
U.S. hotels added 10,000 jobs in December, a decrease from the previous month amid the hotel industry’s ongoing inability to approach pre-Covid employment levels.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Monday, January 9, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
The Ace Hotel Group, the boutique hotel chain considered to be a pioneer in the sector, announced Tuesday that it will be acquired by hospitality firm Sortis Holdings for $85 million, marking yet another chapter in the history of this small but influential player in hospitality.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, January 24. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Ace Hotel Chain Acquired for $85 Million by Hospitality Firm Sortis: Ace only has about a dozen properties, but it has punched above its weight in brand impact. Here’s our analysis of whether Sortis is a good home and if $85 million is a good price.
The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to sue to block the proposed merger of JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines, Politico reported late Friday.
Hotel development in the Middle East is ramping up as investors begin to see opportunity in the region again, according to Lodging Econometrics’ Middle East Construction Pipeline Trend Report. The report said new project announcements in the region continued to trend upward throughout 2022 closing the fourth quarter of 2022 with 67 new projects housing 19,837 rooms, an increase of 56 percent year-on-year. The fourth quarter also witnessed 33 new hotels accounting for 6,452 rooms open in the region. Overall, 2022 saw a record number of hotels openings with 81 hotels accounting for 17,736 rooms. Lodging Econometrics’ forecast for new hotel openings in 2023 is 123 new hotels with 30,113 rooms while 116 new hotels and 29,085 rooms are forecast to open in 2024. Countries in the Middle East with the greatest number of projects in the construction pipeline at the close of fourth quarter were Saudi Arabia with 243 projects and 67,618 rooms, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 104 projects and 29,210 rooms. Egypt came third with record high project and room counts of 87 projects and 21,672 rooms.