Many of the recent news articles about hotels and travel demand carry headlines that are nowhere near the level of screaming, or even a dull roar.
Instead, I'd say they speak at a sensible volume. And that's OK. We've had enough dramatics.
Just look at this Reuters story from a couple days ago. The headline is "The New Normal: Travel Companies Temper Expectations for 2024."
Now, I get that tempering expectations could have a negative connotation, but when you read the story, it pulls from recent earnings calls with hotel brands and airlines in which executives lay out that their companies are still seeing good growth, it's just that they didn't grow at as high a rate in 2023 compared to 2022 as they did from 2021 to 2022. That doesn't mean it's bad. It just means 2022 was such a strong year compared to 2021, that even the good growth in 2023 was slower.
But, if you've been paying attention, you already knew that.
Look up revenge travel on Google and check out the stories. Most of the first results are from 2023, talking about how it was still big — or dying — at the time of publication.
Everything is about normalization now, and the forward-looking numbers hotel companies have shared so far bear that out.
That's good news for the industry, and it's OK to feel good about that. Steady growth is still growth, and while wild swings upward are great, we know they aren't sustainable and can skew future comparisons.
For a better idea of what hotel executives are saying about performance in 2023 and expectations for this year, check out our earnings coverage so far:
Take comfort in things being calm and somewhat quiet. Knowing what's to come this year, at least outside of the hotel industry, there's plenty of reasons to enjoy what we have now.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com as well as LinkedIn.
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