CEOInterviews.AI
Start App
Christopher Nassetta
Christopher Nassetta HLT
President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Hilton Hotels Corporation Common Stock
Watch

Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta at Semafor World Economy

📅 Jul 14, 2026 Semafor Events 17 MIN 22 VIEWS 24 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta sits down with Semafor Business Editor Liz Hoffman at Semafor World Economy 2026.

What Christopher Nassetta said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Christopher Nassetta, CEO of Hilton, argued that despite global noise, the US economy is entering a 'convergence economy' where the middle and bottom will catch up to the top. He cited falling inflation, lower rates, deregulation, tax policy, and massive investment in AI, data centers, and infrastructure as drivers. He reaffirmed his bet that 2026 will be better than 2025 and 2027 better than 2026, citing hard evidence from Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. He dismissed inflation fears, saying AI-driven productivity is deflationary. On the Middle East, he remains optimistic, planning hundreds of hotels, with the region being a top growth market. He lamented the US's declining share of international travel, from 15% to 8%, and called for a long-term strategy to reverse it, estimating a return to previous levels could create a million jobs and $150-200 billion in economic activity.

Key takeaways

  1. Nassetta reaffirmed his bet that 2026 will be better than 2025 and 2027 better than 2026, citing hard evidence from Q4 2025 and Q1 2026.
  2. He plans to build hundreds of hotels in the Middle East, with the region expected to be one of Hilton's highest growth markets in five years.
  3. He called for a US strategy to regain international travel market share, which fell from 15% to 8%, potentially adding a million jobs and $150-200 billion.
  4. He dismissed inflation worries, arguing AI-driven productivity is deflationary over the next 3-10 years.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
15% US share of international travel 20-30 years ago metric 15:15
8% Current US share of international travel metric 15:15
1.66 trillion Infrastructure bill passed during Biden administration other 2:01
$800 billion CHIPS Act amount other 2:01
150 to 200 billion dollars Potential economic activity from regaining travel market share other 15:15
150 countries Countries where Hilton operates metric 8:02
500,000 people Hilton team members metric 9:25
100 billion dollar surplus US travel surplus 10 years ago metric 15:15

Chapters

  1. 0:00Optimism and the C economy
  2. 4:48Evidence of convergence
  3. 7:05Inflation and AI productivity
  4. 8:02Global risks and Middle East
  5. 9:25Middle East growth plans
  6. 14:18US international travel market share

Questions asked in this interview

5
  1. 0:25And how do you feel about that bet?
  2. 1:57Is there a complaint line out the door?
  3. 6:42I don't know, like is what just to sort of maybe interject a note of caution into your relentless optimism, what worries you?
  4. 9:18How do you, is that still the plan?
  5. 14:18Are you worried that your hotels are going to be emptier than they should be because of the perception that foreigners are not that welcome here?
Interviewer 0:00 ↗
Morning everyone. Morning Chris.
Christopher Nassetta 0:02 ↗
Hey, I was gonna say thank you for coming, but as I say it, we're in your hotel.
Interviewer 0:06 ↗
I know. We're the hosts. When you called and said, 'Would you join me?' And you took the whole hotel for a week, I thought it would be bad form for me to say no.
Christopher Nassetta 0:15 ↗
We appreciate. Not to mention, I'm really happy to be here. It's a fabulous crab.
Interviewer 0:19 ↗
I heard you have 500 CEOs here this week.
Christopher Nassetta 0:22 ↗
Yeah.
Interviewer 0:23 ↗
Pretty amazing.
Christopher Nassetta 0:24 ↗
Yeah. Yeah.
Interviewer 0:25 ↗
I've known you a long time and you are, I think, a relentlessly sunny guy. You said last year that you would bet a lot of money that 2026 is better than 2025 and that 27 would be better than 26. First, was that just for Hilton or was it for all of us? And how do you feel about that bet?
Christopher Nassetta 0:42 ↗
Well, no, it's certainly for Hilton, but I think it's for all of us. So we live in a pretty noisy world, and you know since I said that, we're now at war with Iran and other things are going on in the world where if anything the level of noise has increased. I think particularly here in Washington, I live here, you know, it's really easy, but now that's sort of permeated the whole country with 24-hour news cycles. No offense to the media, but it's never ending. So I think it's really easy to get caught up in the noise and not lift up and see what's really going on. So I would say starting sort of mid year last year, I wasn't seeing evidence of a material improvement in what was going on in the US economy in our business, which if you look at our business, it's sort of like the story of the broader economy. It's the K, right? It's the high-end doing really well and everything else not as well. Well, the reality is we have a great high-end business. You're sitting in one of our great luxury hotels here in Washington. Hope you're having a good experience. Let me know if you're not.

10 more exchanges in this transcript

Sign in free to read the rest of this interview. No card required.

Sign in to read the full transcript

Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Nassetta, C. (2026, July 14). Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta at Semafor World Economy [Interview transcript]. Semafor Events. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1086405/

MLA

Christopher Nassetta. "Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta at Semafor World Economy." Semafor Events, 14 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1086405/.

BibTeX 
@misc{nassetta2026_1086405,
  author       = {Christopher Nassetta},
  title        = {Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta at Semafor World Economy},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Semafor Events. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {jul},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1086405/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}