Accor welcomed over 350 leaders to its General Managers Leaders Conference at the Gold Coast this week.
Global and regional leaders were in attendance, including Accor Deputy CEO Jean-Jacques Morin and Chief Executive Officer – Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Duncan O’Rourke, and Chief Operating Officer – Pacific Adrian Williams.
Speaking to HM as part of a media roundtable at the newly opened Mondrian Gold Coast, Morin discussed the growth in franchising in Australia and around the globe.
“Franchising is a worldwide trend,” he said.
“It’s the easiest way by which you can develop business – there is not a lot of contractual discussion, disagreement, negotiation, and so you can go really fast at operating the property.
“Between 2019 and 2024, the percentage of hotels that Accor franchised grew by 10% –from 50% to 60% today, so it’s a huge growth in terms of the number of properties that are managed by franchise.
“We love franchise. It’s better, it’s more profitable, it’s faster, it’s quicker. It allows you to focus on your core competency. It’s a great way of doing business, because fundamentally, the franchise model is based on getting strong brands and it’s also about getting a good loyalty ecosystem and strong IT distribution capabilities.
“In two-three years from now, that 10% figure, will be 15. And Australia is definitely also going this direction.”
Morin also pointed to the expansion of franchising into the luxury space.
“Before, people would not franchise luxury properties. Now, you have Four Seasons hotels which are franchised,” he said.
“It’s only going one way.”
Morin also discussed the impact of conflict in the Middle East and geopolitical tensions on the travel landscape.
The number that is circulating through the various agencies shows that business from Canada to the US has reduced by 30%,” he said.
“That’s a big number, and travellers to the US is down somewhere between 5-10% depending on what country you’re in – on average, 7% worldwide.
“The Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese that were planning to spend their vacation like they would typically do in the States, they are going to Europe, so we do benefit from the change of flows of the travellers who don’t want to go, or cannot, in fact, get the permission to go to places where they would want to travel.”