LVMH Prepares For Looming Travel Boom, Appoints New Hospitality Chief

French luxury conglomerate LVMH has hired L’Oréal USA executive Stéphane Rinderknech as the new CEO and chairman of LVMH Hospitality Excellence.

Rinderknech’s appointment comes in the nick of time for the expected resurgence in the global travel industry in summer 2022.

“We have seen extraordinarily rapid recovery, not only of demand levels but pricing power,” Marriott International Inc. CEO Anthony Capuano said at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. conference in March this year.

“You’ve got historically high levels of savings. You have folks that have been cooped up for two years. You have a lot of pent-up demand for leisure.”

The International Air Transport Association is also anticipating a significant increase in travel activity. The trade group has called on airport infrastructure providers to prepare for a “huge increase in passenger numbers in the coming months, according to The Washington Post.

These market conditions bear good news for LVMH, which operates more than 50 luxury hotels worldwide through top hospitality companies such as Hôtels Cheval Blanc and Belmond Hotel Group. LVMH acquired the Belmont Hotel Group in a deal valued at $2.6 billion.

Rinderknech will begin his new role on June 6, 2022. He is taking over the reigns from Luxottica’s former CEO, Andrea Guerra, who will be stepping down from the position by the end of the month.

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Originally published at https://retailbum.com on May 10, 2022.