The Geography of the Travel and Hospitality Industry

The global hospitality industry is dominated by a small number of very large hotel corporations operating primarily through franchise and management-contract models rather than direct ownership: Marriott International, which absorbed its major rival Starwood Hotels & Resorts in a 2016 merger, and Hilton Worldwide together operate tens of thousands of properties worldwide under dozens of distinct brands spanning luxury, mid-scale, and budget tiers, a brand-segmentation strategy that lets a single parent corporation address multiple price points and traveler types within one loyalty-program ecosystem. This franchise-heavy structure means that a given branded hotel is frequently owned by a separate local or regional investment company, sometimes a real estate investment trust (REIT), that pays the parent corporation a franchise and management fee in exchange for the brand, reservation system, and loyalty-program access, a structural separation of brand from ownership that has become the dominant model across the international hotel industry since the late 20th century.