Hotels Face Bigger Hit Than Post-9/11 and Great Recession Combined: Hospitality Official Warns
Just back from a White House meeting with the president, the CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association characterized the impact of coronavirus in the United States is already more severe for the hotel industry than the September 11 attacks and the 2008 recession combined.
Just back from a White House meeting with the president, the CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association characterized the impact of coronavirus in the United States is already more severe for the hotel industry than the September 11 attacks and the 2008 recession combined.
"Half of the hotels in the United States could close this year," AH&LA CEO Chip Rogers said in a press briefing Tuesday about a White House meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and cabinet members.
Job losses just in the U.S. hotel industry could be in the four million range, Rogers said, if occupancy tracks to a 30-35 percent level for 2020.
Rogers, lodging association chair Jon Bortz, and U.S. Travel Association CEO Roger Dow said Trump administration officials were receptive to their pleas for aid to the travel industry. Rogers characterized it as "a productive meeting."
The message he heard from Trump, Bortz said, was the White House response would be "big, fast and immediate."