Hilton president and CEO Christopher Nassetta said at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) 2017 that if the hospitality industry ignores youth issues including unemployment, does so at its own peril.
In conversation with Bench Events chairman Jonathan Worsley at the event, Nassetta said: "Youth issues and youth unemployment are the sort of things that we as a company and I as a person are very focused on because it’s good for our business and it’s a huge societal problem."
Nassetta added that one of the things the hospitality industry needed to do was market itself better to the new wave of job-seekers, and said that in many cases, the youth are "not thinking about our jobs, and in many cases they think it’s a bad job".
"If you look at the numbers WTTC has put out, for the next 20 years we are going to generate 75 million new jobs in travel and tourism," he said, sharing the opportunities the industry has to offer.
Nassetta gave the example of Saudi Arabia where Hilton is seeing success with young colleagues. Nassetta commented: "We have some really good momentum. They really are putting their heart and soul into getting ahead.
"We will have a bunch of great female general managers that will come out of that pool of talent in the not too distant future."
Read Hotelier Middle East's interview with Nassetta in the June edition of Hotelier Middle East.
Advertisement
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
