A recession has been looming over the U.S. economy for much of the pandemic recovery era, and though the timing keeps getting pushed back, most economists and analysts still expect one is ahead, but that it will be mild compared to past downturns.
Count Adam Sacks among that group.
According to the president of Tourism Economics, which with CoStar's hospitality analytics division STR forecasts the trajectory of U.S. hotel industry performance, the recession will be especially mild for hoteliers, some of whom might not even feel the pinch at all.
On the stage and in an exclusive video interview with Hotel News Now at the Hotel Data Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Sacks said the resilience of travel and hospitality, proven throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, will continue through any macroeconomic bumps ahead.
All signs point to enduring and even improving demand for hotels in the U.S., he said. Those signs include a return of business and group travel, and the inevitable resurgence of international tourism to the U.S.
“In the near term we do have to acknowledge that there are economic headwinds and they will be felt in various destinations, at various chain scales, and it is going to slow growth. My encouragement to the industry would be not to overreact to that,” he said.
“Our view is that the industry is going to prevail through that in a way that we have not in past recessions. That period of plateau and perhaps even a little bit of slippage in demand is going to be short-lived and relatively small compared to past recessions. So stay the course.”
For more insights from the economist, watch the video at the top of this article.