Americas Lodging Industry Summit (ALIS), meeting in San Diego last week, is the first big industry conference since the industry really turned south in the last quarter of 2008. Interviews with attendees and attendance at panels revealed a consensus that rough times lie ahead but opportunities are there for the savviest.
    One of the savviest, Ross Klein, who heads up Hilton's luxury and lifestyle group - including Waldorf-Astoria, Waldorf-Astoria Collection, Conrad - and a brand to be announced in March - built the successful W Hotels brand. Following are highlights of our chat with Klein - then a quick look at other conference goings-on.
Ross Klein On Luxury

• The "identity crisis" involves the end of "traditional rationales" for a luxury vacation - to be replaced by luxury versions of new styles of travel -like eco-tours, and "road maverick" vacations.

Ross Klein

• Retro Destinations: Klein sees cachet in once glamorous locations like The Bahamas, St. Kitts and Acapulco, with "a jet set flavor" lacking in newer destinations

• Klein said his hotels will not cut corners but will seek other ways to maintain margins - improving productivity, motivating staff. "The burden should be on us, not the customer. And the customers notice everything. " 

• The new Hilton brand, with the project name Global 21, "will not be at the luxury level," said Klein, but will be more in the lifestyle category. He said the project name means that the project is international and modern, "born in the 21st century."
• "The coolest thing about Hilton" is that "it was always about luxury. Conrad Hilton loved luxury and the Waldorf was always his jewel."

• Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Travel & Tourism Council, said travel would eventually come out of this because "travel still has a high priority." But he noted that the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) in which so many had put so much stock were seeing deteriorating economies. Still in looking ahead to 2018, he said China would have the largest tourism economy while countries like Canada would fall from the top tier.
• James Burba, who runs ALIS, said that attendance was down from almost 3000 to about 2400 because of the economy. He said that nobody a year ago knew what was coming. A poll of ALIS attendees showed 47% see a turnaround in 2010, 53% in 2009, "more optimistic than we would have expected." Burba was also surprised that 65% of delegates, a politically conservative group, think the federal stimulus is necessary.
• Gerald Lawless, executive chairman of the Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury group, said he is "cautiously pessimistic" because "I would prefer to be cautiously pessimistic and wrong than cautiously optimistic and wrong." Lawless said, "The sovereign funds won't save us."But Lawless was one of the few to see a hopeful sign, saying since the beginning of the year bookings had picked up strongly so that the chain was achieving occupancies "in the mid-70's."
• On a leaders panel of six CEO's, all agreed that things would get better "sometime."
• Chris Nassetta, the new CEO of Hilton said, "The mega-trend is to value even if it's in luxury. People will be more value minded and there will be less gloss and glamour than in the past ten years