DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND EQUALITY
210 | Black-Owned Hotels: NABHOOD opens doors to opportunity
DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND EQUALITY
African American travel is a $63 billion industry.
That’s how much black leisure travelers generated for the U.S. travel and tourism economy in 2018, reports Mandala Research.
The December report is a follow-up to Mandala Research’s 2010 study on the same topic. The new information shows a $25 billion increase in travel spend by African Americans in the U.S. in less than a decade.
The researcher surveyed 1,700 African Americans and learned the majority travel for cultural enrichment, including heritage tours.
African Americans also frequently travel to attend family reunions in destination markets.
Understanding the dynamic of this travel demographic is key for those whose goal is to recruit more African Americans to invest in the U.S. hospitality industry, a $2.5 trillion sector.
Spotlighting business and career opportunities in the hotel industry is the sole focus of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners Operators and Developers or NABHOOD.
Lodging Leaders talks with Andy Ingraham, founder, president and CEO of NABHOOD about their upcoming conference, as well as the association’s goal to grow the level of investment by African Americans in the hospitality industry.
Resources and Links
- Andy Ingraham on LinkedIn
- For information about NABHOOD and its upcoming conference July 24-26 in Miami, click here.
- For information about the International Multicultural & Heritage Tourism Network and its summit that immediately follows NABHOOD’s event in Miami, click here.
- In addition, the Latino Hotel Association’s convention takes place earlier that week in Miami. For information, click here.
DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND EQUALITY
-
346 | Repositioning For Recovery: Hotel conversions to outpace new builds
Lodging Econometrics has tracked the hotel industry since 1998. Its global database includes new-hotel pipelines as well as renovations and brand conversions. Hotel franchisers once eager to launch new brands are focused on converting existing hotels because it’s a faster way to recover revenue lost to the COVID-19 pandemic than through new construction. In Episode 346, Lodging Leaders explores the increasing number of conversions in the U.S. hotel industry and what owners and operators need to consider before repositioning an asset.
-
345 | ‘Rosy View of Future’: Hotel industry sees unleashing of pent-up investor demand
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., financiers anticipated a swell of distressed hotel businesses. Some raised rescue funds to respond to what they thought was a pending crisis. Though there are financial rescues taking place, the level of such activity is far below what industry advisers and fund managers expected. Commercial real estate investors positioned to act in the early days of the pandemic held off and are now just beginning to unleash their cash hoards totaling billions of dollars. Episode 345 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the state of capital investment in the hotel industry.