Tobias Ragge, Chief Executive Officer of HRS

HRS Chief Executive Officer Tobias Ragge is more optimistic than many of his peers. Providing a vaccine is developed, he suspects we could see the hospitality industry operating at 80% of 2019 levels as early as next year—not 2024 as many pundits predict. He also suspects this pandemic may have changed us more profoundly than we realise. In addition to business leaders operating more conservatively for a time, he expects the general public to emerge from time spent in quarantine with fundamental questions about life, work and the meaning of it all. This sort of paradigm shift could send ripples through society. 

He says now is the time for organisations to sharpen their value proposition, as those that are able to showcase their value are the ones that will survive this pandemic. The one-million-dollar question: whether it’s the bigger hospitality brands that survive, or there’s a proliferation of distinctive, smaller brands.