As chairman of Loews Hotels, Jonathan Tisch is supremely focused on uncovering new opportunities. “That’s been one of our core values since my father, uncle, and grandparents started this business close to 75 years ago,” Tisch says. With three brands (Loews Hotels & Resorts, Loews Regency, and OE Collection), 23 properties, and 10,000 employees, the company is committed to growth and expansion in 2016. Here’s his take on new executive leadership, investments in social media, and the importance of travel and tourism to the U.S. economy.
Loews added its first-ever chief commercial officer in January. Does this signal a lot of change ahead? The fact that Oliver Bonke is now our chief commercial officer shows that commerce is very important to our future. With him in charge of sales and marketing and other areas that are relevant to commerce, it’s a big commitment to finding additional sources of revenue and finding ways to interact with our guests and really communicate with our team members.
What are the company’s growth plans for 2016? We will continue to explore opportunities to expand under all three of our flags, through development and acquisition. The first property under our lifestyle flag, OE, is under construction in Toronto. On the development front, the next property to open is Loews Sapphire Falls, which is part of our campus down at Universal in Orlando with our partners at Comcast and NBC Universal. When the hotel opens on July 16, we’ll be up to 5,200 rooms at Universal.
In what other ways does Loews have the potential to grow? If we can add to the portfolio in terms of acquisitions and development, that is very much on plan for us, but also through M&A opportunities and strategic alliances. We talk to a lot of different people about a lot of different ideas, and we are committed to growth. We’re always looking at opportunities.
What other types of investments will be made in the company? We are spending a lot of time understanding social media and how it relates to our client base. Fortunately there are some very smart men and women that are working on this, because I was born on the wrong side of the digital divide. We were the first company that had a program where you could book a room through Twitter, we have an ad campaign that takes the personal impressions of our guests while they’re staying in one of our hotels, and we use their Instagram photos to talk about our resorts and hotels.
You often speak about how America’s neglected infrastructure is hurting U.S. travel and tourism. What progress is being made to fix it? While we are doing a better job of attracting international visitors to the United States, our arrival experience and transportation issues often disappoint tourists. What we’re seeing from Congress and the Obama administration is more of a willingness to work with us as an industry to fix this. In early December, Congress passed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, which will inject about $300 billion into much-needed projects and have a positive impact on the travel and tourism industry.
How will the election of a new president affect this progress? It’s hard to tell at this point. Fasten your seatbelt—it’s going to be a very interesting primary season and then general election. I have to assume that whomever resides in the White House in January 2017 will have a much keener understanding of how important our industry is to this country, because of all the work that has been done by many leaders and by our associations, such as AH&LA and U.S. Travel.
