The demand for travel replaces any doubts the sector had about economic recovery. 

As the hospitality sector prepares for 2022, the heart of the upper / upper luxury tourism segment beats in Cannes this week, at the ILTM International Exhibition. After the exhibition’s year-long hiatus and having left behind a fairly successful (given the circumstances) summer season, the European luxury travel market gathers in the South of France to review the year closing in a few days time but mainly to plan for a 2022 which, although very promising, nobody can say will be cloudless. 

On the occasion of the exhibition, there is no better timing for a discussion with Claire Griffin, one of the most influential executives in the international travel marketing sector, counting almost three decades in hospitality brand communication. Having founded and developed the company Grifco, among others, Claire is now a Partner of MMGY Global, perhaps the largest Travel Marketing Group worldwide. It is from this position that she advises the company’s teams around the world on strategic marketing and communications issues, while substantially contributing to shaping the Group’s industry insights. 

A lot has happened over the past 18 months. How do you see the pandemic affecting travel norms and habits in the midterm?

MMGY Global is one of the world’s biggest integrated travel marketing companies. My partners and I at MMGY Global believe international travel will have a boom year in 2022. We are continuing to see leisure travel in domestic markets pick up at a record pace because international travel restrictions have remained in place longer than anticipated. Our prediction is that we’ll see similar patterns in international travel as we move into 2022 – especially during the summer holiday season. 

Total recovery for the hospitality industry with travel habits normalising we believe will come with the return of the MICE market – in particular group meetings and events. While hybrid models may stick around over the next year as planners seek to maximize their attendance, we do not believe virtual attendees in 2022 will cannibalize in-person attendance at events. On the contrary, it’s very likely that as group travel opens back up next year the inefficiency and costly nature of hybrid meetings will be exposed – creating greater focus on in-person events. Our research certainly indicates this.

On a personal level, how has it affected you as a hotel & travel aficionado?

I remember Friday 13th March 2020 being a key date for me when I began to receive calls from clients from all over the world expressing their considerable concern about the immediate future. It was the most challenging time of my working life and the consequences have personally affected me, as I’d imagine they have to each and every person in the travel sector. On this point and although we have previously had to deal with  some dreadful crises in our business i.e. wars, terrorist attacks, tsunamis, avalanches, ebola etc the issues surrounding COVID have had negative global effects simultaneously creating considerable uncertainty. As a result, we were required to look at our business model with a completely different mindset and working environment. Our working life, like many, was suddenly turned upside down. We were all working remotely and the focus became solution and survival driven which involved taking a hugely flexible approach including working with competitors to try to benefit all. It has made me work more flexibly with colleagues, clients and competitors alike.  Alexandra Delf took over from me as MD of MMGY Grifco. She and the excellent team has allowed me to look at global growth and have more freedom. Alex has taken up the challenge with extraordinary gusto, she is breathing new life into a very successful, vibrant business and adding new strength. 

In terms of volume & traffic, how do you see recovery taking place? Do you expect a V-shape recovery or hospitality will need time to recover & enjoy pre-pandemic occupancy rates?

I see travel coming back where people travel more respectfully and with a little more care for the planet. I think that the six family trips per year will be reduced to an extended three trips per year with people carefully thinking about what they really want to do and spending more time planning with people appreciating travel and hospitality rather than the somewhat laissez faire view of the past. I think that there will be a steady incline of growth rather than a V-Shape recovery. Most economists have projected total recovery for the global travel and hospitality industry as late as 2024, but we are far more optimistic based on our research and what we are seeing across our client data. Demand for travel is superseding any concerns the industry had on financial recovery, which is driving a fast recovery in leisure bookings – especially where there is a strong domestic travel economy like the U.S.

What is the level of creativity that you witness from the hospitality industry? 

I have been supporting the team at MMGY Global with some new business pitches and looking at our creative ideas for opening up new parts of the world where there has never been tourism before. It has allowed for some clever creatives and bringing in new types of partners and methods of doing business which are smarter and have more long term benefits. It has been interesting for me. I also see the integration of all the travel marketing mix elements working more seamlessly together and companies doing things differently. One of our newest clients at MMGY Hills Balfour has been a company called Travel Seen, a travel company working with influencers to support the awareness and sale of holidays. It has been interesting to work in tangent with a new media form in hospitality. Extremely creative and also moving away from the traditional planning model towards reactive and responsive pitching. We still have key hotel openings moving forwards globally, some have been pushed back a little, but investment in new openings is still very strong. 

We see a growing pipeline of amazing projects and mobility in new investments seems more than robust.

I believe that there is a huge pipeline of amazing projects: We have started to work with Farnborough Airport, private jet brands, Travel Seen and many others.

MMGY is a global leader in the field of hospitality. How has your organisation addressed the challenges of the past 18 months? What were its key initiatives in terms of thought leadership and insights on the next day?

I think one of the initiatives I feel most proud about during this time was launching Hotel Week London. With offices based in central London and with a number of London Hotel clients we could see and and we would hear about the daily struggles hotels had to deal with. We created Hotel Week London which saw all of our team at MMGY reach out to hand hold hotels across London. The hotels gave us a special offer for one week to help London during May 2021 to get people back into hotels with great offers and deals. We built a strategy to distribute the story and all the hotel offers with a website and a press campaign to support the industry and get businesses back on track. There was no charge to any of the hotels. The team worked on this initiative to help an industry we love and work in. It was done out of a genuine passion to support travel. We needed to get people travelling all over the world and a good way to start that campaign was to get the British public travelling back to the capital city. Hotels across London have greatly appreciated our support and we have been nominated for Agency of the Year for spearheading this initiative.

As a partner of MMGY how do you see your role in the next challenging years of hospitality? What is for you personally the biggest work challenge in the years to come?

I would like to spend the next ten years of my working life supporting new and existing travel businesses and really utilising 30 years of experience to give the best advice I can. I am there to support our incredible team all over the world and having been a UK based operator I am looking to work globally in the future. The biggest work challenge is to support a large global business but to hold on to the best bits of a boutique business approach and mindset at the same time. I also think that no business is ever too small or too big for a travel marketing company like MMGY. I would like all those wonderful hospitality companies in Greece, however big or small to recognise that MMGY is a very approachable, helpful company and our challenge will be to make businesses of all shapes and sizes come to us and not think “they are too big for me.” Our passion is travel, our knowledge is travel and we want to help tourism grow in a safe and and sustainable manner.

How do you see travel & leisure shaping over the next 18 months?

I still believe that people like to talk to people when it comes to booking a holiday. Agents and tour operators will grow in importance as we understand the time and value that they give us. I think they will be respected and good travel advisers will be in demand.  I think that families will travel in groups together and the multi generational travel trend will turn into multi gen/multi families with 3 generations travelling together from 3 families.