Asian woman standing in trade fair exhibition hall blurred background of large crowded people

By Stephen Renard

CANNNES, France. — ILTM Cannes, the flagship luxury tradeshow for the travel industry, was held at the Palais de Festivals et des Congrès from December 5 to 8, 2022, bringing together more than 3,600 luxury travel professionals from 77 countries.

The attendees interviewed were cautiously optimistic, but added the proviso that all our business can be affected negatively due to the impending U.S. inflation, COVID-19 outbreaks in China and the war in Ukraine. However, the U.S. seems to have a handle on inflation, which bodes well for the luxury business in the U.S., as well as the Caribbean. On the other hand, Southeast Asia is slowly creeping back.

The ITB, the largest travel show in the world, is held in Europe and will be at least 20-per-cent smaller this year than in 2019, while the ILTM 2022 was the largest it has ever been. Many companies such as Kempinski will not attend, signaling that European luxury groups are still cautious about the future. Some hoteliers in London and Paris stated they could not open all their rooms and restaurants or offer true luxury services because of labour shortages.

According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s 2023 State of the Hotel Industry report, the luxury-hotel industry is set to surpass pre-pandemic levels of demand, while inching closer to other key 2019 performance metrics. The report also predicted the most crucial operational challenges will remain staffing shortages and various economic factors. Recruitment is expected to remain a challenge in 2023, with the hotel segment to employ more than two million employees this year, an increase of almost eight per cent from 2022.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.