Interview with : Agathe Fabron, Vice-President of Business Travel and MICE at Accor

Does this back-to-school period, which traditionally marks the return of business customers, meet your expectations in the current climate?

Agathe Fabron - While secondary destinations performed well this summer, Paris and the major cities suffered overall. With the end of the summer holidays, business travellers were expected to replace leisure travellers from September onwards. But we have to be honest, the recovery is timid. The quarantines imposed by certain countries, such as the United Kingdom are discouraging for both individual business travellers and those travelling for professional events. As a result, business demand is still concentrated domestically, whereas we had hoped to see intra-regional flows pick up again.

When do you see a real upturn in the MICE segment?

A. F. - Visibility is fairly limited, whether in terms of individual customers or the MICE segment. But it's clear that we won't return to the levels we saw in 2019. before 2022, at best. Obviously, we all want things to pick up quickly. Some sectors are doing relatively well. The economy is gradually bouncing back, perhaps even a little faster than we had imagined. We can imagine that at some point, if the other industries are buoyant, this will have a knock-on effect on the tourism and events sectors, which were the hardest hit by the crisis. I remain fairly confident about how things will develop in 2021. The volume of requests coming in over the next few months is interesting.

If other industries are buoyant, this will in turn benefit the tourism and events sectors, which have been hardest hit by the crisis.

How does this demand manifest itself?

A. F. - The lead time for confirming bookings is now extremely short, because customers only commit to when they are absolutely certain to be able to travel or bring their participants together. Some of our wide-body hotels, for example, have requests for fairly large events in 2021, but these have not yet been confirmed. Organisers are enquiring to see if there is room and how much their event would cost, but there are no firm bookings for this type of event. On the other hand, requests are arriving as they come in for small events of 60 to 70 people, whether in Paris, the provinces or other European countries.

Does the All Safe health label programme launched by Accor also apply to meetings and events?

A. F. - The group has declined its All Safe health protocol on the MICE side, with an offer called All Meet Well, currently in force in the United States and Europe. A dedicated website details all the measures we have taken specifically to host events and meetings. This makes it possible to reassure organisers. In the same way, we guarantee our customers against unforeseen events by offering them flexibility. Accor For example, it allows you to reduce the number of rooms reserved. Given that quarantines can occur at any time, we are not going to penalise customers for this. Furthermore, if a government takes the decision to confine a city, a region or even a country, no cancellation fee will be charged.

There's a lot of talk these days about hybrid events. Is this also the trend in your establishments?

A. F. - Some companies are organising meetings for 20 people in Paris, all connected to their offices in Germany and the UK. In the same way, trade fairs are taking this digital option with virtual conferences to keep in touch with their customers. As many people around the world are still teleworking, there is a fairly good attendance rate at these hybrid events, whereas you may have had absenteeism at some physical conferences. We need to find the right format to ensure that the event has sufficient impact and is interactive enough to keep participants attentive from a distance. The challenge for companies is to continue to get their messages across in this context.