Billionaire investor Barry Sternlicht told CNBC Wednesday that the US travel recovery is well underway – at least in parts of the country like Florida – after a slowdown caused by Covid.
“We’re seeing all this pent-up demand come back. It’s going to be a frenzy this summer,” said the Chairman and CEO of Miami-based Starwood Capital Group of “Squawk Box.”
For example, Miami restaurant attendance data from OpenTable shows on many days in March was higher than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
Sternlicht also said that one of his company’s hotels in the area, 1 Hotel South Beach, is “ahead of February of this year, ahead of 2019.”
His comments on Wednesday provide insight into the recovery of the US economy after the coronavirus crisis, which devastated sectors such as leisure and hospitality. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the number of people employed in the leisure and hospitality industry was still nearly 3.5 million fewer in February than in February 2020.
However, expectations for significant economic improvement in the coming months are commonplace. Last week, the Fed raised its forecast for US gross domestic product and forecast a 6.5% increase in 2021.
“The recovery is in full swing,” said Sternlicht, pointing to President Joe Biden’s recent remarks that states should open all adults to vaccination against Covid by May 1.
Vaccinations are considered critical to enabling recovery, giving Americans more confidence to participate in economic activities that would otherwise frighten them during the pandemic, such as vacation and travel.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 25% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of vaccine as of Tuesday and nearly 14% has been fully vaccinated.
Sternlicht expects that pent-up demand will also boost the apartment market in the coming months.
“There are 5 million people living with their parents. They all go back to the apartments as soon as their jobs are back, and people go back to the office,” said Sternlicht, whose Starwood Capital focuses on global real estate investments. , hotel management and the energy sector. Sternlicht’s company also launched Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 1995, which was acquired by Marriott International twenty years later.
“You see people saying they want to meet their people in person … One of our companies has signed a $ 350,000 15-year lease in Germany in Berlin,” added Sternlicht.
He compared the desire to be in the office with those who still like to see movies in theaters despite the advent of digital streaming. “The truth is, it’s a social event,” he said. “People go back to theaters and they go back to the office.”