Editor’s Note: Connecting the Dots is a series of monthly conversations with Michael Dominguez, President and CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International. The series examines issues in the global economy in 2024 that will “connect the dots” to be helpful not only in business but in life as well. This installment is moderated by Tim Altbaum, Founder and CEO at Vario, a full-service A/V and production company. Altbaum is president-elect of the MPI DFW Chapter, a former board member of NACE, and holds CSEP, CMP, HMCC and CMM designations.  

 

 

Tim Altbaum: The number one thing I've heard from you is the positivity and the numbers are what they are. You can watch whatever new sites you want and hear all the negativity you want, but if it's not data driven, then you're just running by emotion. How would you kind of summarize what we talked about and what do you want this takeaway to be? 

 

 

 

Michael Dominguez: I'm very bullish about our economy, I'm very bullish about our industry. We are stable and we are strong. Barring any kind of major conflict outbreak worldwide, as of right now, we're in a great place. What sometimes gets forgotten is there's a lot of risk and we do have some issues we have to work on and fix. We have always in my life had issues that we have to work on even in the best of times. There has been no situation in my 50-plus years on this planet that it's been nirvana. I sometimes think that we forget that overall. I'm a Pareto (principle) guy; it's the 80-20 rule, and 80% of overall right now is really good, we’re in a good, stable place; 20%, we still need to work on and fix, and we have some serious problems that we have to address, but we always have some serious issues that we have to address. That's just part of the world we live in. That's what gets forgotten and during election times, it has driven into our head that they're worse than they've ever been. 

Past Reports 

July: CEO Confidence is Positive 

June: Olympics Drive European Hotel Compression 

May: International Trade, Geopolitical Upheaval  

April: How Does an Election Cycle Impact Meeting Industry 

March: How Supply, Demand Impact Travel, Hotels, Meetings 

February: Global Economy Mostly Good News for Hotel Industry 

January: New ALHI Series to Examine Key Global Issues 

 

I'm not a believer they're worse than they've ever been. They're just there and we have to address it. What I do think is our political environment is worse than it's ever been, where we don't have people in Washington (D.C.) in numbers, in mass numbers, trying to get stuff done. They're trying to make political points instead of trying to move legislation forward. We've had these great presidents in the past that have worked with the opposite side of the aisle. I think about (Ronald) Reagan working with Tip O'Neill for all those years in the Democratic Congress and Senate; Bill Clinton working for all those years with a Republican Congress and Senate for six years, and the one thing they did is they wrote legislation that was balanced in the middle. It wasn't ideological because there was a thought process and there was some great reading around Reagan that he and Tip O'Neill would always say, ‘Here's everything my party will never agree to. Here's everything your party will never agree to. Here's what we agree on, so let's write the legislation based on what we agree on so that we can move the legislation forward.’ That's missing today. It's about ideology on both sides. Everybody goes for the jugular instead of understanding how we can we take this in. I don't care what the issue I; can we take it in pieces instead of trying to take a monumental problem and make it even bigger with a monumental bill? If you would break that monumental problem into pieces, we could resolve a lot of it and you would get legislation passed in pieces because you're taking one issue at a time. That is a big piece of the cycle, but I'm still hopeful and I'm always going to be hopeful that we are still, to me, the best country in the world. I am very patriotic in that regard. There's no place I'd rather be. We all have our challenges, but we are in a good place. 

 

 

Connecting the Dots

 

 

Altbaum: I really appreciate everything you've said. For me, it's enlightening, and for those that are watching, I think they're going to get a lot of valuable information out of this. Thank you for connecting the dots. 

 

In September: Global Turmoil.