Hyatt Hotels CEO slams travel fears

Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian has called travelers' concerns "catastrophizing."

Apr 7, 2025 - 13:29

Between the Trump administration's repeated threats to take over places like Canada and Greenland as well as numerous high-profile news stories of tourists being detained at the border, travelers from around the world are reconsidering their trips to the U.S.

A recent report from research firm Tourism Economic predicts inbound international travel to the U.S. to drop by 5.2% by the time 2025 is over. This would, in turn, result in over $18 billion in lost revenue for everyone from airlines and tour operators to hotels and rental property owners.

Don't miss the move: SIGN UP for TheStreet's FREE Daily news

'Like everyone is going to stay put forever': Hyatt CEO denies Trump's impact on travel

The chief executive of Hyatt Hotels (H) , Mark Hoplamazian classified this "ever-heightening level of anxiety and dread" as "catastrophizing."

"I'm saying that the magnitude might be overblown at this point, because right now we're approaching an ever-heightening level of anxiety and dread and catastrophising [British spelling] of what this could be, like everyone is going to retreat to their home towns and stay put forever," Hoplamazian said in an interview with British news outlet The Telegraph.

Hoplamazian continued to deny that Trump's policies are having an impact on tourism to the U.S. and then, contradicting himself, said that Hyatt would see any dropoff in American bookings made up for in its global locations.

"It might be that we don't find as many Canadians coming to American resorts, but we will have more Canadians in our Caribbean and our Mexican resorts," he said. As of 2025, the Hyatt chain has over 1,300 hotels and resorts across six continents while Hoplamazian has been in the role as CEO since 2006.

Aviation analytics company OAG reported a 70% dropoff in Canadian airline bookings to the U.S. since the start of the year while Air Canada (ACDVF) Executive Vice President Mark Galardo said that things continuing in the same vein could force the country's flagship carrier to "move capacity into other sectors [that] see strength."

Several Canadian airlines have already started canceling routes to the U.S. amid low demand.

Numbers from OAG show that Canadian travel to the U.S. fell by 70% since the start of 2025.
Shutterstock

Canadian and European travel to the U.S. tanked in 2025 (here is by how much)

Numbers crunched by the U.S. Travel Association also show that even a 10% drop in the total number of Canadian travelers to states like Florida and California would cause the travel industry to lose over $2.1 billion. The recent Tourism Economic report shows that the lower travel numbers are caused both by border fears and weak consumer confidence — a general uncertainty around spending money on discretionary things amid fears of a recession.

More on travel:

In the hotel space, French hotel group Accor (ACCYY) also said that bookings to its U.S. hotels for the upcoming summer are down by 25% from the previous year.

The Hyatt CEO, meanwhile, is digging into the fact that this is a momentary ebb that will work itself out in due time.

"This is the same kind of mentality that took hold during Covid when companies like Peloton and WeWork ended up being worth $50, $20, $100, $200 billion," Hoplamazian further said to The Telegraph.