Right now then I promise you this is a rather rare event because it's not often we've had all the following panelists on a panel at the same time. You may not know who they are, but I guarantee you've stayed in their bedrooms. Our panel includes Sebastian Bazin, CEO of Accor; Tony Cavano, CEO of Marriott; Jerry from Diriyah; Ellie Mal of IHG; Chris Neta of Hilton; and F. Sah of D Group of Turkey. Let's begin. Are we back to numbers post-pandemic, Sebastian?
Far better. We are certainly 20% better than the last year of the pandemic. Much better in both numbers and revenue, and pricing is true in some regions for occupancy, but we're not 20% up on occupancy, far from it.
Same comments. The only distinction I would make is that our business model is asset-light, so while managers and franchisors are ahead of 2019, many owners and franchisees are not back to profitability due to expense growth. Chris, the ability to get back to where you were and advance further has been quite remarkable.
It has been remarkable because you had all these fixed assets, but it's not many industries that overnight lost their business. Pricing power has been important. Our business is broken into three components: leisure travel, business travel, and meetings and events. Leisure recovered fastest, business travel slower, and meetings and events are now getting back. Leisure was 30% of our business pre-pandemic, became 60% coming out, and is moving back. Group business travel is breaking all barriers, with bookings for 2039. The business has changed, with more group travel.
Well, Richard, transcending the kingdom for a moment, Chris is the former chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council. Thank you for your leadership. Now I have the privilege of representing the kingdom, which is chairman of the Middle East. Our statistics show global GDP from tourism at the end of 2025 will be 11%, the highest ever. Turning to you, F. Sah, how do you see post-pandemic growth?
Well, Richard, first of all, we are more leisure travel people. We create a lifestyle experience. When people go home, they want to come back. We create the need to come back. We are very small, with a house hotel and restaurants. The gentlemen here are big hotel people looking for restaurants. We do the reverse: we create a location and lifestyle experience and put lodging on top.
Sebastian is such a leader of synergy. Let's move this along. The fascinating part is where we grow. Which parts of the world are most interesting for you at the moment, and how do you take advantage of them with sustainability and growth issues? Let's start with you, Chris.
If you lift way up, we are at the beginning of a golden age of travel. Three fundamental things: demographics—over five billion in the middle class by 2030 who want to travel; people want experiences more than things; and massive increase in mobility and workforce flexibility. People have more flexibility to blend business and leisure.
I'll add to Chris's second point. Consumers prioritizing travel over goods is not our intuition, but our credit card data shows that appetite across demographics, and it feels permanent. There's a fourth trend: aging populations in North America, Europe, and China. Retirees are healthier and wealthier, and one of the top things they want to do is travel. Their motto is 'go first class or your kids will.'
I like that. The book 'Die with Zero' comes to mind. But on that point, how difficult is it for you, even with a large chain of products, to get the right product to attract those different markets—from those who go first class to those at the back of the bus?
It's what we've been doing for 80 years. We started with Holiday Inn and InterContinental. You build the muscle to keep every brand experience distinct. We are a collection of brands, from upper luxury with Regent and Six Senses down to midscale. As the population grows, you have to balance where the momentum is.
I don't think it's a single spot. All of us see a bifurcation of the consumer. High-income households prioritize travel at the upper end; lower-income still have appetite but in a more affordable way. That's why we build portfolios spanning multiple price points. Tony has 40 brands, we have 24. But in 20 years, the bulk of growth will be in the mid-market because of the middle class bulge. Travel starts domestic or intra-regional—70-75% of travel volume is domestic. It's about demography and emerging middle class. We provide jobs for local communities, which is the social aspect of travel and tourism.
Hold that one second. I just want to follow up on that because if there's one country where that is absolutely true, it is Turkey at the moment. Not only is the population exploring their own country, but you're marrying that with increased tourism for upward mobility.
I'm a very proud citizen of Turkey. The last 20 years, Turkey has invested immensely in infrastructure—airports, highways, speed trains. Our DNA is hospitality. Turkey is the biggest open air museum. We don't compete on key price; we compete on per head spent. We create experiences and lifestyle. The interesting parts of the world are USA, Middle East, Turkey, and Latin America is coming up in the next couple of years.
I'm going to pause because we have this AI tool. I asked AI what is the solution to over-tourism. The answer: push digital detoxing, ban social media in iconic locations, and accelerate virtual reality tourism to cut physical visitors by 50%. Oh, you are delusional. Go ahead, Chris.
First of all, I disagree with all of that. We are sitting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is a perfect example of how to solve over-tourism. It's a big world with many undiscovered destinations. The Red Sea investments will distribute travelers around the world, not have so many descending on the same old places.
Richard, can I piggyback on Sebastian's comment on domestic tourism? We set a goal for Vision 2030 of 100 million visits for the kingdom. We fulfilled that by December 2023, of which 73 million were Saudis rediscovering their own country. We were one of the only countries that grew during COVID because of internal tourism.
Richard, I'm going to say something even more controversial. I don't think there's an over-tourism problem; there's an over-concentration of tourism in a few places. This summer I spent weeks in a tiny village in central Italy with 15 permanent residents. These villages are getting depleted. We need to work with governments to distribute travel. The industry, in partnership with the public sector, should promote secondary and tertiary domestic destinations. Venice and Barcelona cannot take more visitors, but Italy and Spain have more to offer. Public-private partnership is key, as seen here in the kingdom.
