LOS ANGELES — Accor's Gilda Perez-Alvarado said it takes "quite a bit of work" to track and respond to consumer travel trends.
Perez-Alvarado, who is Accor's group chief strategy officer and CEO of its Orient Express brand, joined the french hotel firm in October 2023 after departing her role as global CEO of JLL Hotels & Hospitality. She was with JLL for nearly 20 years.
Perez-Alvarado said the world is facing complex issues such as geopolitical, macroeconomic and social demographic changes, but travel is still a priority for many consumers.
"The world is a little bit incongruous. There are jurisdictions where travel is going up; there's others where we're now entering into a new stabilization phase. As a global company, we do have to take stock of what's going on," she said during a video interview at the 2024 Americas Lodging Investment Summit.
"There's the very big, mature markets, there's the emerging markets, there are markets that have been transformed during the pandemic that don't look anything like they did before. ...
Each market has its own individual strategy. For us, there's quite a bit of work to do."
Despite some challenges, consumers have an "insatiable appetite" to travel, Perez-Alvarado said.
At one point, hoteliers noticed there was no limit to what the consumer was willing to pay for an experience, she said. Now as some of that "revenge travel" subsides, Accor is focused on driving value.
Travel behavior across generations is top of mind when creating new experiences for guests, she said.
"What does a millennial want to do? What does Generation Z want to do? From a baby boomer perspective, they have disposable income and disposable time. We're trying to curate our product or service offering, etc., to best match those individual travelers but also the general trends that we're seeing around the world," she added.
One way Accor is differentiating itself is through its diverse offerings. Accor has hotels, branded residences, curated food and beverage as well as luxury trains and yachts through Orient Express.
Development and expansion of these products across the globe is dictated by what each market needs. This could include dual-branded properties or standalone branded residences, she said.
"It's really a case-by-case basis. We look at the market as a whole; we are making sure that from a neighborhood, destination perspective it makes sense. We cluster where we can cluster, and at the end of the day, honestly, it's about driving the value for the owner and also the community. It has to work as one," she said.
Perez-Alvarado brings to Accor her global strategy lens from JLL. Her time at JLL was magical, she said. It was a company where she grew up.
"The skill set that I've been able to translate or bring over to Accor is our global approach to doing business, that relationship management with owners, the understanding of the forces behind an investment. ... Also Jones Lang LaSalle, it's a complex, multinational organization. Accor is also a complex, multinational organization," she said.
For more from Perez-Alvarado and her goals for Accor and Orient Express, watch the video above.