Sebastien Bazin discusses the post-pandemic boom in the tourism sector, highlighting Accor's global expansion and its focus on responsible hospitality. He emphasizes the importance of connecting cultures and providing opportunities for people who have never had them before. Accor is expanding into new regions like Southeast Asia and the Middle East, driven by demand and the potential for growth. Bazin stresses the significance of technology as an enhancer in the industry, while maintaining the importance of human interaction during stays. He acknowledges the challenges of mass tourism and the...
What Sébastien Bazin said
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Sébastien Bazin, Group Chairman and CEO of Accor, discussed the company's global expansion, brand diversification, technology use, overtourism, sustainability, and future growth. He said Accor operates in 120 countries and is moving east to follow demand, having decided a decade ago that Europe lacked growth compared to Southeast Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Asia. He emphasized the importance of listening to government officials, citing Saudi Arabia as an example. Bazin described technology as indispensable but insisted on preserving human interaction during hotel stays, opposing QR codes in rooms. He acknowledged overtourism in cities like Barcelona and Venice but argued against blaming new travelers, predicting younger generations will favor remote destinations. On sustainability, he rejected the opposition between tourism and sustainability, advocating a balance of negative and positive impacts on communities. He travels 300 days a year to stay connected to local communities. He identified India and sub-Saharan Africa as future growth markets and plans to keep all 47 brands, possibly expanding to 52, to serve the emerging middle class. His legacy goal is running Accor with a good heart.
Key takeaways
Accor operates in 120 countries and is close to being number one in most regions except America.
Bazin decided 10 years ago to expand east because Europe lacked growth compared to Southeast Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Asia.
He plans to keep all 47 Accor brands, possibly expanding to 52, to serve the emerging middle class.
The tourism sector has had a remarkable post-pandemic boom with numbers returning to pre-2020 levels this year. One of the biggest global hotel groups is Accor.
The purpose of Accor is the following: pioneering the art of responsible hospitality, connecting cultures with heartfelt care.
Very well, thank you. Accor has been very much associated and dominant to Europe for a very long time but you seem to be moving east a lot. Why is that?
What do you mean? I am. So it's now very global. It is in 120 countries and I think we're close to being number one in most of the regions except America. But we're moving because we're going with the demand. We are helping people to discover new countries, new continents and we are by doing so engaging a lot of people who never went to school or university, embarking them, training them a job. So it's a mix between you discover a country, you discover a culture, you discover people and it's a lovely job.
Well, we decided 10 years ago when I started that Europe was wonderful but Europe didn't have the same growth factor that you could have in Southeast Asia, in South America, in the Middle East and in Asia. So we went very fast to a lot of those new continents by deploying the 47 brands of our company. When you do this, you need to be there yourself. You need to listen to government officials because you need to understand the vision, the action plan. And Saudi Arabia is a remarkable example where you'd better listen first before you act. But then when you understand the ambition, you just want to be an actor and not a spectator.
Well, brands are very important because people actually want something that resembles what they need or what they're asking for. So Banyan Tree is very different from a Raffles, is very different from a Fairmont or a Novotel. So each brand is scattered for a different client. It's like your group of friends. If you look at your 20 best friends, each of them do something for you and they do it differently. So it's the same thing with the portfolio of hotel brands.
It's indispensable. It's very important. It's going to be an enhancer, certainly before the stay, after the stay, you're going to be using AI and it's going to be very efficient. The only thing which I'm trying to put a barrier is don't use too much technology during the stay. I don't want you to go to your hotel room with a QR code and your iPhone without saying hello and without me being able to ask you how are you. So that human interaction is one of the reasons why you do travel, is you want to discover and meet somebody else. So robots can help but hopefully will never change our industry profoundly.
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Bazin, S. (2026, May 11). FII Institute 8th Edition: Sébastien Bazin - Group Chairman & CEO, ACCOR [Interview transcript]. FII Institute. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1017274/
MLA
Sébastien Bazin. "FII Institute 8th Edition: Sébastien Bazin - Group Chairman & CEO, ACCOR." FII Institute, 11 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1017274/.
BibTeX
@misc{bazin2026_1017274,
author = {Sébastien Bazin},
title = {FII Institute 8th Edition: Sébastien Bazin - Group Chairman \& CEO, ACCOR},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, FII Institute. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {may},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1017274/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
