Ahead of the International Hospitality Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin (3-5 May), Gabriel Escarrer, CEO of Meliá Hotels International gives his thoughts on industry recovery, ESG policies and how to tackle staff shortages, predicting that employees and guests alike will be seeking out ‘brands that have soul’ in the post-pandemic era.
Hospitality Insights: Beyond recovery, what do you view as the major changes in the hospitality sector in 2022?
Gabriel Escarrer: I think the hospitality sector will boom post-pandemic, starting in 2022, when the industry will pick up momentum for a long period of growth. Having said that, changes in society and in travellers’ habits and expectations will make it critical for companies to adapt to the new ecosystem: more sustainable companies and destinations and digital immersion, not only regarding digital distribution, sales and marketing, but creating a digital or hybrid guest experience at the hotels as well. I also think that travellers will demand brands that have ‘soul’ and strong links with destinations, too.
Hospitality Insights: Relations between owners, operators and all stakeholders have changed: how have your responded to it and what are the most positive long-lasting effect for the sector?
Escarrer: This crisis has made us strengthen the commitment and cooperation that, as a family business, we have maintained at all times with all of our stakeholders. We sought collaborative solutions with our hotel owners and other partners to help re-balance our operating agreements within a no-income scenario, and we stayed closer than ever to our customers, to maintain and even increase their engagement and loyalty. I believe that we have learnt a lot from this dramatic crisis, which has helped us to build stronger and long-lasting relationships, based on trust and collaboration.
Hospitality Insights: With people at the core of hospitality, how do you view the current shortages in talent and what does your company do to address them?
Escarrer: I think that, on one hand, the Covid crisis has accelerated a trend whose arrival we were already intuiting, a new people management ‘paradigm’ in which employees are looking for jobs that provide them with satisfaction beyond obtaining good results, and allow them to reconcile with their personal and family life. On the other hand, the pandemic has put a lot of stress on the competitive environment, with many professionals switching to other more profitable and growing sectors, such as IT and technical, and other ‘polyvalent’ profiles.
We definitely need to boost our employer-brand, we need to increase the attractiveness of our sector for new and current workers, and as a family-born company, our people has always been at the core of our strategy, so we are working on several fields which include training and careers development, improving the quality of our work and involving our team into a great ‘cultural transformation’ in order for them to be part and aligned with the new strategy and the company’s future, and to evolve with us, under the claim of ‘leaving no one behind’.
Hospitality Insights: What regions or countries do you see as having the biggest potential for growth?
Escarrer: As one of the global leading resort companies, we have our expansion focus on three regions that include some of the best resort destinations worldwide: the Mediterranean area,- including the Canary Islands - the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. The 80% of our growth in the next 10 years will be within these three areas.
Hospitality Insights: How are you developing, implementing and measuring ESG policies to ensure their effectiveness?
Escarrer: Meliá was acknowledged by the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) as the world’s most sustainable hotel company in 2019 and 2020, and the second in 2021, so for us, ESG matters and policies are very relevant.
I’m especially proud of our policies against climate change, because we created a pioneer in-house carbon footprint measuring program in 2007, we have been evolving and strengthening our carbon emission commitments and we aim to achieve the ‘A’ level in the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) Climate Change in 2024.
Currently 100% of the energy we use in Europe comes (when possible) from renewable sources, and we were the first hotel company to apply blockchain to offset its carbon footprint through our MeliáRewards loyalty programme, allowing customers to get directly involved in combatting climate change, by redeeming their MeliaRewards points to acquire carbon credits and support approved environmental projects.
Join Meliá Hotels International at IHIF in Berlin on 3-4 May 2022.