Hotel Market Day 2017

"A dynamic and uncertain world - Implications for the hotel sector" 

For many years the world trundled along based on the logic of industrialism. Some predicted that the industrial society would be replaced by the service society. It didn't happen.

The world today is more dynamic and uncertain than perhaps ever before. Development is being driven by scientific discoveries in a number of areas that are turning established truths on their head. At the same time, the period from discovery to commercial use is shorter. Life is changing – often for the better – for many people. For others, the changes and the pace of change are giving rise to anxiety and conflict. Entrepreneurship is flourishing: today, the best students want to start their own business rather than being employed by large corporates.

What are business leaders and others to make of what is happening? How can they navigate through it, so as to benefit from the discoveries and manage the uncertainty that exists? How is your own business affected by digitalisation and robotisation? How can we take account of changes in people's values and lifestyles in our business development? What major structural macroeconomic changes can we expect in terms of productivity, interest rates and currencies?

These are also questions for the hotel sector – which is in a favourable situation as far as growth is concerned. At the same time, technology is transforming its structure: digitalisation has created the conditions for a new distribution structure dominated by new large, globally-oriented players. New business models are being born and positions in the value chain are changing.