French hotel group Accor SA said Canada’s gaining traction as a tourist destination as travellers increasingly avoid the U.S. for holidays.
Canada is benefiting from this influx of travellers, Chief Financial Officer Martine Gerow said on a call with reporters, adding that Canadians are also scaling back travel to the U.S.
Evidence is mounting that lucrative transatlantic travel may be at risk as European visitors avoid the U.S. amid a larger shift in anti-American sentiment and U.S. tourists rein in spending. Chief Executive Officer Sébastien Bazin warned earlier this month that Accor’s forward bookings from Europe to the US this summer are down 25 per cent.
Arrivals of non-citizens to the US by plane dropped almost 10 per cent in March from a year earlier, the U.S.’s International Trade Administration data shows. The pullback could cost the U.S. economy almost US$90 billion in 2025, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates.
“The good news is, if they don’t go to the US they usually end up going somewhere where Accor is present,” Gerow said.
Accor reported first-quarter revenue of €1.35 billion (US$1.5 billion), ahead of the average analyst estimate, and confirmed its medium-term growth outlook. Demand was sustained through April and May, though visibility is limited beyond that, Gerow added.
Revenue per available room — a key measure of profitability — rose 5%= per cent in the first quarter, according to a statement Thursday.
Maggie Shiltagh, Bloomberg News
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