Hospitality Conference Heavyweight Jim Burba Still Sees "Heaven in 2011"
When it comes to hotel industry conferences, Jim Burba is
the man to see and he is also a good man to listen to because he is in constant
contact with all the industry's big players. His Burba Hotel Network runs a
cluster of high-powered conclaves every year. They range from the very well
attended Americas Lodging Investment Summit in San Diego in January to the
Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific in Japan; also on the agenda are
conferences dedicated to the Caribbean, India, Central America and Southeast
Asia.
At the 2009 ALIS conference, at the very lowest point of the economic crisis, Burba shook things up predicting "Heaven in 2011." He was not referring to luxury specifically, but he did tell LT360 in an interview that, "If you take a longer view, if you can get through this period as a luxury owner you will be in a good position. With luxury having been so tied in to mixed use and residential project, which is not happening now, there will be great opportunities for those who do manage to maintain a luxury product."
Burba also agreed that the affluent represent "a great opportunity to reach into another market. You can get them to know you; the tricky question will be how to keep them."
Meanwhile, caution reigns. Said Burba, "We polled delegates to ALIS a
month before our last meeting (December 2008) and they saw a turnaround
late in 2009; we did another survey recently and that date has been
pushed out to mid-and late 2010. The murkiness we had at the end of
2009 is gone but the caution remains."
As for "Heaven in 2011," Burba said, "When I first made the statement, it was a
gut feeling that these cycles usually lead to stronger markets once there is a
recovery because supply is lower. In contrast to January of 2009, ‘heaven' is
not out of range by 2011. That's not a mathematical equation but I wanted to
remind people that in the early 1990's when most investors would not touch
hotels with a ten-foot pole, those who could see past the problems made gutsy
and profitable moves."
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When it comes to hotel industry conferences, Jim Burba is
the man to see and he is also a good man to listen to because he is in constant
contact with all the industry's big players. His Burba Hotel Network runs a
cluster of high-powered conclaves every year. They range from the very well
attended Americas Lodging Investment Summit in San Diego in January to the
Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific in Japan; also on the agenda are
conferences dedicated to the Caribbean, India, Central America and Southeast
Asia.
