US hotel group Hyatt said bookings for group business events have beaten pre-pandemic levels for the first time since the crisis began, reporting “remarkable pent up demand” as corporate offices start to fill up again.
Mark Hoplamazian, chief executive, told the Financial Times that despite cancellations because of the spread of Omicron, bookings for group meetings in January had been 14 per cent above the same point in 2019.
“There is prominent and very clear evidence that group [travel] is on the precipice of some significant surge in activity,” he said. “We booked and realised more business in the fourth quarter of 2021 than we did in the fourth quarter of 2019.”