U.S. Military is warning that by 2010, surplus oil production could completely disappear. By 2015 the oil shortage could be 10 million barrels per day.
Obviously shortages of that nature would have severe impact on business for hotel/resort/conference center industries. It will even spill over to restaurants. China has hundreds of millions who will have economic capability to buy cars over the next few years. It is projected they could absorb any excess capacity. India’s consumption of oil is greatly increasing.
Whether the above time frames are exactly right, all businesses that plan on being around 2-5 years from now, need to evaluate how to expand their business if oil and gasoline shortages get severe.
There’s Opportunity Here!
Resorts that are close to cities stand to benefit from this. Resorts that are farther away have opportunity to develop business alliances with tour operators and mass transit providers. Developing that business will take time, so get started. At the very least you will be developing additional business.
Suburban hotels will benefit from those businesses and citizens that are close to them. But they too will need to develop some alternative means of transportation. Hotel shuttles will need to be expanded, or the hotels will need to tie in with mass transit providers. Mass transit providers will probably also get into the charter business to optimize fleet usage.
Hotels and restaurants will have more opportunities to work together.
We know the amount of oil is limited. We also know that alternative fuels can only meet a small percentage of the worlds demand. New technologies to solve energy problems are years away from mass commercial applications.
Progressive hotel owners, General Managers, and other executives are starting to evaluate where they are going to get their business several years from now. The population of the world will double in the next 50 years. Executives who will be most in demand are those who pay attention to trends and identify how those trends can benefit their business.
