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Now, on to this week's news:

Food for thought, but can people pay for it? WSJ reports farmers around the world are struggling to get fertilizer, impacting production, due to a lethal combo of increasing energy costs and countries keeping fertilizer for domestic use. The result is food price increases globally and less food for the world’s poorest.  Food costs are outpacing inflation, which, in the UK, is at the highest point in 30 years at 5.4 % (6.2 % in the US). The Guardian (UK) reports on the true cost of the cheapest food in supermarkets, quoting, MD of grocery chain Iceland, Richard Walker, that “his stores are losing customers ‘to food banks, and to hunger’. Not to other competitors, not to better offers, but to starvation, and charity.”  In the US, the NYT reports last year, prices in fast-food restaurants jumped 8%, the largest increase in 20 years.  If you’ve not noticed this trend already in your hotel food costs, surely we all will in our grocery bills. What can we do to help the lowest wage earners?

Travel trends of the week: 

• Vegan travel: it’s not fringe anymore reports the NYT, in a long feature on all the hotels, restaurants, and tour operators focused on vegan food and sustainable products and design.  Citing examples from big brand hotels (Aloft, Four Seasons, Peninsula) to destinations marketing to vegan travelers. 

• Bleisure boom. Bloomberg reports “bleisure” is helping to fill airline seats as business travel lags, the share of business trips that include a weekend has increased 23 percentage points to 38% since 2019. These trips are usually booked last-minute and pay a higher fare. 

• Younger, wealthier Americans are leading leisure travel recovery. New research from Deloitte, “travelers over 55 are significantly less likely to travel, citing health worries as a top reason why.” Overall, those over 55 took 1.7 trips in 2021, compared to 2.4 trips for those 35 to 54 and 2.7 trips among those 18 to 24 years old. Read more in Travel Agent Central. 

• A NFT restaurant will open in New York City next year. Flyfish Club, set to open in a yet-to-be-announced Manhattan location in 2023, will be a luxury “seafood-inspired” dining club from the VCR Group, a hospitality group that includes Gary Vaynerchuk, the entrepreneur, and co-founder of online reservation system Resy. WaPo reports FlyFish “will serve status with a side of seafood” and quotes Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor at Rutgers, who expects many more brands will follow suit with NFTs. "People think of NFTs as cute stuff, like Beeple (referring to the artist whose NFT sold for more than $69 million at a Christie’s auction)...but NFTs have the potential for broader use, like the way Flyfish will allow people to own, lease and sell their memberships.” As of Friday afternoon, the FlyFish NFT regular-membership token was selling on the secondary market for around $13,600, and a token giving access to an even more exclusive tier, which includes access to a private room serving omakase — chef-created, multicourse sushi meals — was selling for around $29,500. The company released 1,501 tokens this month, bringing in around $15 million. BTW, tokens are just for membership, patrons will still have to pay for their meals...in U.S. dollars. 

• Hilton smartens up its benefits. In partnership with Guild Education, Hilton is offering a new continuing education platform to all employees, debt-free. These options include everything from high school completion, English-language learning, digital literacy, professional certifications in high-demand career areas such as culinary, business, data analytics and technology, and college degrees.
• 2022 Travel rebound won’t begin until the Fall. Skift shares new data from UNWTO:  
  • 2021 was the second-worst year on record for global tourism with international arrivals down by 73 percent, a mere one percent increase over 2020.
  • Predictions for 2022 remain a far cry from a return to normalcy: global tourism may only reach 50-63 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
  • UNWTO experts point to omicron’s disruption of travel with the re-emergence of restrictions that have impacted consumer confidence, as well as vaccine inequality and global economic challenges all impacting recovery.

Work trends: 

• It’s not women’s confidence that needs to be fixed, it’s the workplace. The Financial Times reports this refreshing take by two London academics, who say that the individualistic approach popular today focused on building women’s confidence and battling “impostor syndrome” overlooks the responsibility of companies to create a workplace that doesn’t undervalue women.  Amen!  

• Quitting is contagious. According to the NYT quitting rates were high in August, September, and October. Then, according to Labor Department data, they climbed even further: More than 4.5 million people left their jobs voluntarily in November, a record high in two decades of tracking.  When one employee leaves, the departure signals to others that it might be time to take stock of their options, what researchers call “turnover contagion.”

• Out sick thanks to omicron. Nearly 9 million people missed work in the US in late December and early January as the omicron variant bit into the labor market, reports WaPo.

On hertelier this week:

• Hitting refresh on reality. This week columnist Nancy Mendelson offers a refreshing take on how we view our self-perception with actionable tips.
• Key takeaways from "Bolder, Braver, Better" the Master Innholders annual conference which captivated more than 400 UK hoteliers in London this week.
• The new face of networking is masked...are you ready? My account of navigating the buzzing hotel conference with tips for masked interactions. 

JUST FOR FUN:  Are you playing Wordle? I’m hooked. 

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Em