Speaker 1: Turning to travel, and really this is the reason why
Speaker 1: we wanted to highlight travel this particular week. We're seeing
Speaker 1: a real discrepancy between high end travelers and low end
Speaker 1: travelers in terms of their.
Speaker 2: Position to spend.
Speaker 1: Is there a change in that four season? CEO Alejandra
Speaker 1: right now saying his company has seen in strongest year ever,
Speaker 1: writing this short term uncertainty given the current geopolitical and
Speaker 1: macroeconomic pressures are impacting traveler sentiment, but the luxury segment
Speaker 1: is more resilient, Alejandro joins us. Now, Alejandro, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being with us. Pleasure to have you
Speaker 1: here in studio. I want to start there. Is it
Speaker 1: true that you're not seeing any slowdown whatsoever in the
Speaker 1: luxury element?
Speaker 2: Good morning, Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to
Speaker 2: be here. And I love the fact that we're talking
Speaker 2: about luxury hospitality. Yes, I mean, we had a really
Speaker 2: strong first half of the year compared to last year,
Speaker 2: much better. When I look into the booking trends for
Speaker 2: the second half of the year, even going on into
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, they look very strong as well. You know,
Speaker 2: I think there's two things that are happening there. First,
Speaker 2: and for most is that the luxury guest or a
Speaker 2: luxury consumer continues to be very resilient. They continue to spend,
Speaker 2: you know, that desire for experiences to explore continues to
Speaker 2: be there. But also I would say that from a
Speaker 2: four seasons angle and from a four session's point of view,
Speaker 2: we do offer a very clear value proposition to our guest.
Speaker 2: I mean, we do have very proud to say that
Speaker 2: we have the very best hotels in the best locations
Speaker 2: and we provide the best service to our guests. And
Speaker 2: when you have that as the brand proposition, and that's
Speaker 2: what we do at four Seasons, there's a demand for that.
Speaker 2: And by the way, this is not new of this year.
Speaker 2: We've been operating down for sixty years and has been
Speaker 2: the constant all throughout the period.
Speaker 1: So what has changed? And I'm wondering not just from
Speaker 1: the consumer who is able to spend, but also from
Speaker 1: the employees and who you're able to recruit. For a
Speaker 1: long time, there is this earth of people willing to
Speaker 1: work in hospitality in the direct aftermath of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Do you see it as being much easier now to
Speaker 1: hire people and sort of easier to also retain them
Speaker 1: without massive price increases wage increases.
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, obviously, for us, a key component of
Speaker 2: what we do is through our people. I mean, we
Speaker 2: are a service company and the most important asset is
Speaker 2: the people that we have with us. So we place
Speaker 2: a lot of emphasis in making sure that we are
Speaker 2: the employer of choice in every single market that we operate.
Speaker 2: We do spend a lot of time training people, developing them.
Speaker 2: For us, we do measure employee engagement twice per year.
Speaker 2: We are at the two percent across all industries in
Speaker 2: terms of employee engagement. So it's a topic that we
Speaker 2: spend a lot of time because we do believe that
Speaker 2: we need to have the best and most engage employees
Speaker 2: with us. We haven't had. I mean, obviously, right after
Speaker 2: the pandemic there was a little bit of pressure from
Speaker 2: a labor point of view. We don't see that anymore,
Speaker 2: but again it's because of the force that we place
Speaker 2: in making sure that we are the employer of choice
Speaker 2: in the marketing where we operate.
Speaker 3: I want to know about more about your customer, but
Speaker 3: specifically like the ultra luxury and there, I know you
Speaker 3: have a private jet service something like one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifteen thousand dollars for charter a day. How much demand
Speaker 3: is there for that?
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, it's interesting. And just to give you
Speaker 2: the context of this is, obviously Four Seasons started as
Speaker 2: a hotel and a resource company, and we are now
Speaker 2: the leading luxury hospitality company and that's where our guests
Speaker 2: experience the brand. What we found over time is that
Speaker 2: because our second business is the residential brand, the residential
Speaker 2: so guests they stay with us, they experience the brand,
Speaker 2: and then they are willing to buy a residence with us.
Speaker 2: So that's sort of the journey that they start experiencing
Speaker 2: with Four Seasons. And then the third piece is what
Speaker 2: you just said is the journey's experience based travel that
Speaker 2: we prom as a third line of business. So if
Speaker 2: you think about the whole analogy, guests they stay with us,
Speaker 2: they live with us, and they travel with us. They
Speaker 2: developed such a comfort with the brand and with the
Speaker 2: brand promise and the brand proposition that they're willing to
Speaker 2: spend that amount of money in traveling for twenty days
Speaker 2: through ten four Seasons in Africa, in Europe and so forth.
Speaker 2: So for us, it's been more around creating this luxure
Speaker 2: ecosystem for four seasons that our guests are eager to travel.
Speaker 2: By the way, we have all the intineraries for this
Speaker 2: year sold out for the rest of the year, so
Speaker 2: it's a very successful property and it taps into that
Speaker 2: desire to experience, to explore that we find in our guests.
Speaker 3: You're saying we're too late for it, then yeah.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty five, we're opening the.
Speaker 3: Good To keep in mind, I mean, just talking about
Speaker 3: the different mix of your businesses, You're not the only
Speaker 3: one doing in this space, and it obviously is an
Speaker 3: exclusive space of those who can offer this, but you
Speaker 3: think of the online resource trying to give also experiences
Speaker 3: to what does competition look like right now?
Speaker 2: Well, competition because of the attractiveness of the luxuries space,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of competitors coming in. I think we
Speaker 2: have as a four seasons the advantage of the brand.
Speaker 2: I mean, we are the most We continuously measure brand preference,
Speaker 2: brand awareness in terms of our brand and we continue
Speaker 2: to be the number one luxury hospitality brand, and I
Speaker 2: think that carries a lot of weight, but it's because
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, we're able to deliver
Speaker 2: that value proposition to our guest. I mean when it's
Speaker 2: interesting because I do interact with a lot of our
Speaker 2: guests and when I ask them what do they like
Speaker 2: about the four Seasons, the first thing they tell me
Speaker 2: is that I know what to expect and I've been
Speaker 2: able as a guest to explore remote destinations. So for example,
Speaker 2: I've been able to go to Garabora. But because there's
Speaker 2: the four Seasons, I feel comfortable because I know what
Speaker 2: to expect, and to have that level of consistency and
Speaker 2: that brand power is very, very unique. So I think
Speaker 2: we're uniquely a very well positioned.
Speaker 3: Where do you see demand right now in terms of
Speaker 3: the hot spots top five people are traveling too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's interesting because and I'm gonna say
Speaker 2: something which is a little bit of contrariant. When I
Speaker 2: look into the history of four Seasons over the last years,
Speaker 2: travel patterns haven't changed much. For example, fifty five percent
Speaker 2: of our revenues come from the Americas, the majority of
Speaker 2: in the US. More than fifty percent of our guests
Speaker 2: they are from the US. And whether they travel to
Speaker 2: the US right now during the summer time, they travel
Speaker 2: to our South Florida collection, they go to Hawaii. Beyond
Speaker 2: the US, they go to Mexico and then Europe. The
Speaker 2: fact is that this has happened for many, many years.
Speaker 2: Americans are going to go to Europe probably once a
Speaker 2: year every summer. I mean, that's so we're seeing that
Speaker 2: again this summer, but it happened last year, prior year,
Speaker 2: prior year. But again, America's representing fifty five percent of
Speaker 2: revenues for US in the Europe, and the Middle East
Speaker 2: represents twenty five percent of the revenues, and there the
Speaker 2: dynamics are similar. Europeans they mostly stay within Europe. They
Speaker 2: ventured into the Middle East or Africa. And then we
Speaker 2: have the APAC, which is twenty percent of our business.
Speaker 2: Three percent is only China and that's mainly regional travel.
Speaker 3: Do you still see the Chinese consumers spending as much
Speaker 3: in luxury hotels the same way the US consumers.
Speaker 2: No, they have not come back. I mean when I
Speaker 2: look into what was the spend prior to the pandemic,
Speaker 2: it's less. It's interesting because they are spending less in China,
Speaker 2: so we still don't have the same race that we
Speaker 2: used to have prior to the pandemic in China, but
Speaker 2: they're starting to spend more internationally, but internationally within the region,
Speaker 2: meaning Japan for the most part, because of visa issues
Speaker 2: and many other things. They still have not come back
Speaker 2: to Europe or the US, which is where we saw
Speaker 2: them prior to the pandemic. There's a real.
Speaker 1: Question here about how much and towards this lack of
Speaker 1: Apollo called us out for us this morning. He said,
Speaker 1: all you people in media, and I'm paraphrasing, just keep
Speaker 1: using everyone as an anecdote to try to paint the
Speaker 1: macro picture. Your company has been around for sixty years.
Speaker 1: How independent of the macrocycle, is it?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: I mean, we're talking about something that is a complete
Speaker 1: microcosmon to itself of people who have disposable wealth and
Speaker 1: are going to travel no matter what, versus a company
Speaker 1: that does have some sort of sensitivity to what's going
Speaker 1: on in the underlying consumer centivacy.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would be lying if I would say
Speaker 2: that we are immune to any microeconomic geopolitical impacts, because
Speaker 2: we are. I mean, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: that uncertainty impacts travel or sentiment, and people don't travel
Speaker 2: because of that. But obviously we've been operating for sixty years.
Speaker 2: Have we've gone through these cycles and they go away,
Speaker 2: and at the end of the day, what we see
Speaker 2: in is year or a year that the market continues
Speaker 2: to grow in travel and tourism has been growing for
Speaker 2: many years now, that desire to experience, to explore continues
Speaker 2: to be there. I think it's really interesting when you
Speaker 2: look into the luxury consumer that our composition of about
Speaker 2: twenty percent are boomers, forty five percent are Gen X,
Speaker 2: thirty five percent already our millennials, so that transfer of
Speaker 2: wealth is starting to happen, but we're not losing the
Speaker 2: boomer so it means that the market is expanding. So
Speaker 2: always year and year there's going to be more demand,
Speaker 2: more growth. And at the end of the day as well,
Speaker 2: we as as a hotel and resource company, need to
Speaker 2: be at the forefront in terms of creating amazing experiences,
Speaker 2: so we can't satisfy the demand. So I don't think
Speaker 2: at the end of the day that the demand just
Speaker 2: comes by itself. We need to have, like we do,
Speaker 2: a very special product, a very special service proposition to
Speaker 2: our work guests, so at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: they are eager to come to a four seasons.
Speaker 1: So you're doing great with the baby class. I hear
Speaker 1: that you really crushing it, you know, particularly south of
Speaker 1: the US.
Speaker 2: Paid actor. No, it wasn't, you know, But that's one.
Speaker 2: It's a tremendous learning experience because sometimes we spend so
Speaker 2: much money on marketing that doesn't provide any outcomes. But
Speaker 2: then these special authentic moments are the ones that the
Speaker 2: consumers value the most. This was a complete viral moment,
Speaker 2: but it was completely authentic. We had nothing to do
Speaker 2: with it. In the end, we have more than three
Speaker 2: hundred million views through various digital platforms on the four
Speaker 2: Seasons Baby Obviusly we got a spike on on searches
Speaker 2: on four Seasons Orlando, so it was very good. But
Speaker 2: again it was very authentic, which ultimately is what people like.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: I wonder how many board meetings for about the four
Speaker 1: seasons Baby all right now four seasons c H. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being with us.