Preparing for the Future Traveller | Elie Maalouf, IHG | WTTC Global Summit 2026

Right.

Right.

Well, thank you, Manfredi, and it's great to be in Malta here with everybody. Look, when we look, when we think about loyalty, let's start with the origin of it. The first hotel loyalty program was launched by IHG 65, 70 years ago with the first Holiday Inn. We started hotel loyalty, and that was a different generation. Where are we today? Today, we are with 165 million IHG One Rewards members around the world. But their, their fundamental requirement is trust. Trust. Every night, 1 million people stay in one of our hotels around the world. We have about 1.1 million rooms, 7,100 hotels. 1 million people stay at IHG every night. Of those million people, 67% of them are IHG Rewards members. In the US, it's 73%. That is a tribe. A tribe that travels around the world every night and stays with IHG. But why? Because they trust. They trust that our brand will take care of them. That they will get that restful, recovery, repair sleep that the group was talking about earlier. That their meeting will be done properly. That their breakfast will be good, the gym will be fine, the wedding will happen. The safety will be there. So, in the end, loyalty is about trust. Do I arrive somewhere at 2:00 a.m. that I've never been before, right? A building I've never been to before. But when I arrive, everything that I expected is what I expected. Why? Because it says InterContinental, because it says Kimpton, it says Holiday Inn, it says Six Senses, it says one of our brands. So, yes, we have a big loyalty program, but why does loyalty continue to grow? It continues to grow because trust is something people want, especially today in a digital, virtual, artificial intelligence age. It's great for productivity. It's great for efficiency. It actually lowers trust. Because you don't know what to believe anymore. There's so much information out there. Some of it true, some of it we know not true. Even some of the destinations you see online, they look beautiful, the reviews are great. The prices are fantastic. Is it even real? Does it exist? Or is it a scam? These things are happening. So, digital is increasing productivity. It's lowering trust. But what our brands do is they maintain trust, and that's why loyalty grows.

Well, I wouldn't say we outsource anything.

We manage. We partner.

I've been here less than 24 hours. I've already had three meetings with hotel partners who enter into agreements with us for generations. Generations. There's no outsourcing. We are there with them all the time, from me all the way to our general manager, to our training teams, our development teams. We just, we have these partnerships that go on for generations. Minimum 20 years. The second InterContinental Hotel that ever opened in the world opened in Beirut, Lebanon. It's still open with the same Salha family 65, 67 years later. There's deep trust with owners, too. They are loyal to us. They're not, it's not the loyalty program. It's an even deeper loyalty. So, yes, loyalty is one important way that we're growing. But that's not the fundamental of why travel and hotels grow. It used to be our industry grew because GDP grew and the middle class grows, right? And that continues. GDP continues to grow, and the middle class continues to grow. But today there are three other forces that are growing our business. And very important forces. Number one, experiences matter more than ever before. Live experiences. Live experiences. Not digital experiences. Why? Because digital experiences have no scarcity. You can produce an infinite amount. So, what becomes scarce, what becomes valuable, is a live experience. There's only one World Cup football final. That's why everybody said, 'Oh, nobody will go to the World Cup. The tickets are too expensive. The air tickets are too expensive. Hotels are too expensive. It won't work.' It worked beautifully. It was a record. Stadiums were full. Hotels were full. People went and had a great time. I went to a great match. I went to Egypt-Argentina. I took my three sons. It was packed. Egypt should have won. I mean, who would have thought that, I mean, who would have thought that Egypt-Argentina would be a great match? It was a phenomenal match.

I know, I'm Lebanese by origin, but I just like the underdog, right? And Egypt played, I mean, they went up 2-0. They should have won. They had a goal disallowed. We all know the story. Anyway, if you're Argentinian, I'm sorry. Egypt should have won that match. But the point is live experiences. The US Tennis Open that we sponsor, there's only one final. How about that match between Alcaraz and Shelton that went to 3:20 a.m.? No, actually 3:40 a.m. Five-set match went to 3:40 a.m. that Shelton won. I watched that match to the fifth match, fifth set. I shouldn't have. I had an executive committee meeting starting at 8:00, 8:00 a.m. the next morning. I did not get the repair and rest, and I don't care because I saw one of the greatest tennis matches ever. I had watched it on TV. We had customers, loyalty members that we took to the match. They were up there till 3:40. Why? Because it's live. You're not going to watch something digital till 3:40 in the morning. You're just not. You're not.

And then you, you tape it, you watch it, you forget about it. So, experiences matter. Number two, longevity. Healthier, wealthier generation around the world that can travel anytime. At 80, 20 years ago you were dead. At 80 today, you are traveling. Mick Jagger is 80, he's on tour. He's on tour. And so people, Italians, the second highest longevity in the world, Italians, after the Japanese, the second highest longevity. You're going to live forever.

89 years. My mother's 94.

Yeah, so, so no, no, we're, you're, you're in good shape, don't worry. But longevity is expanding our travel horizon. People are able to travel healthfully and spending more. They don't want to leave it to their children as much. If you don't go first class, your children will. And so they're spending and they're going. So that's the third thing is now not only the older people that have more money are traveling more, Gen Z, the young people, they're not getting married as often or soon, they're not having children as often or soon, they're living at home. That may be not good in 50 years, but today that means they have money. And they're traveling, too. So you have three new forces expanding travel on top of loyalty.

We have generations.

By, by the way, it's not just sports events, it's concerts. It's conferences. Well, why are we here? Why are we here live? Why aren't we doing this virtually? Because it's not the same. It's not the same. You don't have that beautiful dinner at the palace like last night. You don't have this, you don't have this virtually. Nobody wants to go to a virtual conference. It's not a thing.

Yeah, yeah, just forget about it. So, no, but yeah, geography's expanding, too. Why? Because airline networks are expanding, and because people are looking for new experiences, and they want them in new geographies. They don't want to go just to top 10 destinations in Europe or in London or in... They want to go to other destinations. So, yeah, we're, we are, yes, we're always going to be very big in North America, very big in Europe. But today, if you look at the, the 1.1 million rooms that we have in the world, Europe and North America account for 67% of today's open rooms. If you look at our pipeline of rooms, which is 330,000 hotel rooms under development, 60% is east of Europe. Turkey, Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, South Korea. Why? Population's younger, GDP growth is higher, infrastructure development's higher, airport construction is growing. The number of airports being built today in North America is precisely zero. The number of airports being built in Europe today is precisely zero. India, 50. China, at least 30. Rest of Southeast Asia, many more. So, there's a higher rate of growth in east of Europe. Now, there's volatility. There's a war here, a conflict there, crisis here. But you know what? When you're in 50 countries, it averages out. And then you make higher highs and higher lows, right? So, so yes, today two-thirds of our hotels and rooms are Europe and North America. Two-thirds of our growth is east of Europe.

East of Europe.

East of, from Europe, east, so Turkey, Middle East, the Stans.