CEO criticizes political bickering

Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson discusses how the U.S. debt crisis has impacted business.

There are markets like Washington DC where the government shutdown is having an impact on hotels in that market, but again, it’s kind of frustrating, because the economy in the united states is broadly growing. Really it is this strap which is holding it back.

Now, I read one of your blogs on your website, you’ve even suggested holding it off on political contributions to both parties, I mean, are you serious about that, you’re that frustrated?

Right. Oh, I am. You know, I think we’ve seen our politicians move to the 2 extremes. And part of that is about your man drain and other things in the US. I think part of it may also be about the parties’ demanding and adherence to a certain theory as opposed to practical problem solving, and so I threw out this idea, go ahead and give money to the politicians you believe in, that’s fine. But maybe we should not give money to parties; maybe we should not give money to folks who are too extreme either direction. Let’s give money to folks who are gonna actually solve the problems that are confronting the country.

Let’s talk about Asia and you are visiting several different countries. China, obviously a huge market for you, are you expanding rapidly within china or has the growth in china affected what your plans are?

Well, in the short term in some markets, there are some impact of slower economic growth this year, but generally, this is still a market which is rich with growth opportunities for, so a couple of statistics, there are fewer than 2,000,000 hotel rooms in china today, there are 5,500,000 hotel rooms in the united states. Economies are not that different in aggregate size, obviously economies’ per capita are very different from place to place. So what we’ve done, we opened our 21st hotel in shanghai earlier this year, biggest operator in shanghai, but we’re opening our 1st hotel in Chengdu, for example, this month, a Ritz Carlton there. And increasingly we’ll see our growth go to the second tier cities, but we’ll grow as the Chinese economy grows over the next decades.