00:00These are really uncertain times, as in the uncertainty of when the Iran war will end,
00:05we have fuel shortages, we have volatility in the forex space.
00:11I mean, how is your business being impacted by it all?
00:14Well, hospitality, and particularly luxury hospitality, is a very resilient business.
00:19We've been operating in luxury hotels since 160 years with the Hong Kong and Shanghai hotels.
00:24And in fact, the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong will be celebrating 100 years in 2028.
00:31I think the recent expansion of the Peninsula Hotels in Europe, for instance,
00:35with first our Paris Hotel, our London Hotel, and our Istanbul Hotel,
00:39has been able to give us different avenues to mitigate some of the geopolitical tensions that we have.
00:45So today, we have 12 hotels, 12 Peninsula Hotels around the world.
00:4950% are in Asia, we're rooted in Asia, in Beijing, in Shanghai, in Hong Kong, and in Southeast Asia,
00:56or in Tokyo.
00:57And then we have three hotels in the United States, and then now three hotels in Europe.
01:01So did you see a slowdown initially, you know, from the impact of the Iran war?
01:06Is it picking up now? What has been happening?
01:09There's no doubt that we all, the industry suffered some cancellations in March, particularly.
01:13I think it was a result of less airlift, less ability for people to travel.
01:18So you can't travel, you have to cancel your stays.
01:21But we've seen now a ramp up, particularly over the last three to four weeks,
01:26both from people being able to travel back to the original destinations that they have,
01:32but also a bit of a shift of destinations.
01:34I think safety is very important for the leisure sector.
01:38So Greater China has been a great beneficial of that.
01:42We're seeing more people traveling into Hong Kong, even into Beijing and Shanghai.
01:46And Tokyo has been incredibly resilient.
01:49And at the same time, we're seeing a bit of a change in the pattern.
01:53It's a much shorter booking period, which forces our teams to be much more agile,
01:59to be able to react to last-minute decisions that impacts, you know, staffing,
02:04but it's also, in fact, pricing.
02:05But overall, I think we are able to mitigate now the bump that we all suffered in March, April.
02:12Are Asian travelers choosing to travel within the region now?
02:16Yes, indeed.
02:17I think we're in China today, in Shanghai.
02:20And it's very interesting to see that, first of all, there's continued domestic travel within China.
02:26Our hotels in Beijing are performing actually very well, a combination of local but international.
02:31But the Chinese are starting to travel again.
02:36Hong Kong, Korea, Bangkok are the top three destinations.
02:40And we're seeing that they're traveling outside, but not too far.
02:44And safety is a big concern.
02:46So our business, actually, in Tokyo and our business in Bangkok and Hong Kong
02:51has benefited from this uptick in travel.
02:54And would you also say that luxury travel, luxury hospitality is pretty resilient,
03:00despite the uncertainties and the challenges?
03:03Indeed.
03:04I think both from a business travel and a leisure travel, the higher-end segment is more resilient.
03:11We're seeing in the luxury industry, I come from a luxury retail background,
03:16we're seeing a big shift from buying goods to buying into experiences.
03:20And luxury hospitality, and the peninsula in particular, is providing more than a bed.
03:26It's providing an experience.
03:27It's providing emotions.
03:28It's providing shareable experiences that really are making our guests come back,
03:34can bring their families, bring their friends.
03:36And this segment has been much more resilient than the regular hospitality segment.
03:41The thing is, when it comes to hospitality, manpower is a huge issue, especially for hotels.
03:45How are you coping with that?
03:46And where are you seeing the biggest challenges in terms of the regions, U.S., Asia, Europe?
03:53I think that for a company like ours, we provide careers to people.
03:58We look after people very well.
03:59And we provide a lot of training.
04:02There's no doubt that there will be a shortage in the hospitality world in the long term
04:07because those careers have been suffering a little bit from an appeal.
04:12But it's for us to...
04:1320-30% shortage in terms of manpower?
04:14I think there's a statistic from the World Travel Organization that says by 2050 there would be a significant shortage.
04:23And AI can come to that?
04:25So I think it's two things that we have to do.
04:27And the Hong Kong and Shanghai hotels are focusing a lot on that.
04:29First of all, we have to make sure we continue providing great service to our guests.
04:33So with service, you have to have the human touch.
04:35So we need to continue recruiting.
04:37We need to work with hospitality schools and create those careers for the young leaders of tomorrow.
04:43And secondly, how do we embark and how do we adopt AI to do some of the things that were
04:49done manually before
04:50but can now allocate this time to the frontline staff and create this relationship and those experiences?
04:56What do you see AI doing for you to help counter the resources shortage?
05:03I think there's very simple things which already are in place at the Peninsula and the group in general.
05:09Emails, email bookings, inquiries for emails.
05:13You don't need to have someone now checking this.
05:15This can be very much automated.
05:16The response and the connection is done personally.
05:20But filtering all this is a huge improvement.
05:25And pricing as well as making the experience more personal and knowing better your guests thanks to data,
05:33I think it's going to be a big shift.
05:35And even in luxury hospitality, you can use data, you can use AI, but then bring back the emotional connection,
05:42bring back the human touch and deliver exceptional service.
05:44And in terms of expansion, where are you looking at expanding within the next 12, 24 months in 30 seconds?
05:50We've just embarked into a strategic review.
05:53It's perform and transform.
05:55Perform is doing better with what we have.
05:57And transform is how do we take the brand to the next level.
06:00We believe in Asia.
06:01We believe in Greater China and Japan in particular.
06:04But I think Europe...
06:04So expansion will be Asia-led or not?
06:06So I think it's going to be a combination.
06:08We believe in Europe.
06:09Our guests want us to travel more to Europe and to get out of the cities.
06:13So more results, more branded residences, which is incredibly important for luxury hospitality.
06:18So more to come.
06:19But let's do better with what we have.
06:21That's a perform plan.
06:22And let's continue to transform.
06:23Let's take our guests to a new destination.
06:25Let's create new experiences.
06:27And that's going to be something.
06:29Let's get out of the four walls of the hotels and let's create those great experiences for guests.
06:32Definitely get out of the four walls.
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