Marriott International CEO Anthony Capuano joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss company earnings, inflation, travel demand, pricing, consumer spending, human trafficking training, and the outlook for growth.
Video Transcript
BRIAN SOZZI: Travel demand is officially back, despite a higher price tag. Marriott saw revenue per average room climb nearly 29% year over year in the fourth quarter and is predicting the good news will continue into this year with business and cross-border travel demand expected to carry over. Marriott President and CEO Anthony Capuano joins us now. Thanks for traveling to our studio today.
ANTHONY CAPUANO: Of course. Good to see you. Good to be back.
BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, upbeat earnings day for the Marriott team. Upbeat earnings call, I would say. And really, one of the takeaways that you brought up– abundantly clear people love to travel. Why is it still happening here and happening in a big way?
ANTHONY CAPUANO: A whole host of reasons. Even before the pandemic, we saw shifts in the data away from spending on hard goods towards experiences. I think the psychological impact of being locked down for some portion of the pandemic has only accelerated the trend that had already started.
BRIAN SOZZI: And it’s still revenge travel, or is this something else developing? Now it just seems that it is being etched into our fabric.
ANTHONY CAPUANO: I don’t know that it’s revenge. I think people were reminded how much they love to travel, explore new places, try new foods, immerse themselves in new cultures, and some of the events that were postponed– birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and the like. And so people were reminded of the value of travel.
BRIAN SOZZI: I just realized, Anthony, in real-time, I haven’t been on a vacation in about seven years.
ANTHONY CAPUANO: