Trump pushing travellers to Canada: Marriott CEO
TORONTO Divisive language and policies from U.S. President Donald Trump are helping push business travellers north of the border, the head of Marriott International Inc. said on Wednesday.
Large groups of travellers, particularly for conferences, are changing reservations to friendlier cities such as Toronto over U.S. options “with the view that bringing in an international group would be more hassle-free in Canada and maybe a little bit riskier in the U.S.,” chief executive Arne Sorenson said.
Revpar growth, a measure of financial performance based on revenue per available room, will be in the “mid- to high single digits” in Canada this year, compared with one to two per cent in the U.S., Sorenson said. Revpar growth alone doesn’t indicate whether travellers are changing their destination.
“You’re going to have people coming in from everywhere, and they’re going to be looking at ‘Can we get our people in? Are they going to want to go to that place?’” Sorenson said. “At the moment there’s a perception around the world that the U.S. is a little less welcoming than it was in the past.”
Sorenson cited the president’s efforts to ban travellers from some Muslim-majority countries and speeches that emphasize nationalism and criticize current immigration policy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has publicly defended Muslims and extolled immigration.
Marriott is bringing up the issue in conversations with the White House on “welcoming visitors from abroad,” Sorenson said, declining to provide details.
Sorenson has commented on Trump’s policies in the past. The president’s travel ban is “not good, period,” he said at a company event in Dubai in April. The ban has been repeatedly blocked by federal courts and has drawn condemnation from employers in industries including technology that rely on foreign talent.
Sorenson was vice chair of thenpresident Barack Obama’s Export Council and was in the delegation that visited Cuba in March of 2016, part of an overture Trump has criticized. Sorenson wrote an open letter to Trump on LinkedIn soon after his election, in which he emphasized the need to unite the country and “break the cycle of retribution.” Former presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who has denounced the president’s character, is on Marriott’s board of directors.