Addressing the evolving needs of the hospitality industry will require embracing bleisure travel, as business and leisure are now "impossible" to segregate, Accor Group chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin said during the hotel company's 2023 Global Meeting Exchange in Paris.

"Don't try anymore to segregate leisure and business, because it's going to be vastly impossible except on [meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions] and congress events," Bazin said, attributing those blurred lines to remote work, which he also encouraged organizations to embrace.

Work-from-anywhere has proved to be "huge" for Accor, Bazin said, adding that it generates "repeat loyal business" but has changed his outlook on how the hotel business needs to evolve. To Accor, he said, that evolution will concern far more than the guest room, even for business travelers.

"The welcoming, the lobby, the bar, the restaurant, the people you meet. … It's all this hospitality we've missed for so many years," Bazin said, calling the community spaces "critical" to the success of hospitality in the new paradigm and adding that the hotel room is just an "accessory." Indeed, much of the focus may be taken off travelers.

"Whatever we're going to be building in the future in terms of new brands, new hotels … has to be designed [and] programmed for the local community … not for the travelers," he said, arguing that catering to the local community will attract travelers more holistically, as they will know the location is "busy, trendy, quirky [and] food and beverage works," because of the uptake surrounding community.

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