NYC Takes Biggest Hit From $59 Billion Business Travel Collapse

(Bloomberg) -- New York hotels are getting crushed by the collapse of business travel, highlighting the challenges that urban lodging markets face from the ongoing pandemic.

U.S. hotels are expected to lose $59 billion in revenue this year as companies keep business travelers home. New York City is the biggest loser, with other major cities and convention markets also seeing big declines, according to research published by Kalibri Labs and the American Hotel & Lodging Association. 

New York’s lodging industry is on track to bring in just $531 million from business travelers in 2021. That’s a $4 billion decline from 2019, before the pandemic grounded flights, shuttered offices and pushed companies to embrace video conferencing. 

The drop in corporate demand stands in stark contrast with a rebound in leisure travel, which helped the U.S. lodging industry approach pre-pandemic levels in July and August. Industry executives had hoped that business travel would pick up as summer vacations ended, but rising Covid-19 cases has dampened demand. 

The impact on the hotel industry may be long-lasting, as the world’s biggest corporations reconsider their approach to travel in a bid to save money and reduce carbon emissions.    

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