Tony Capuano: Sure. Of course. So, maybe I’ll sort of go in sequence. We are seeing a very encouraging uptick in the pace of development inquiries, a parallel uptick in the number of signed MOUs and then parallel committee submissions and approvals. As you’ll recall from some of our previous conversations, oftentimes, unlike many other markets around the world, new construction hotels often come into our development process when those structures are well under construction as opposed to a US deal where it might come to us as a greenfield site. Many of those under construction buildings had been paused during the pandemic. We have seen parallel encouraging restart of many of those construction projects. So when we think about each of the milestones in the development of a hotel project or the life cycle of a hotel project, we’re seeing encouraging uptick at every one of those milestones across Greater China.
Brandt Montour: Perfect. Thanks so much.
Tony Capuano: You’re welcome
Operator: Thank you. We’ll take our next question from Ari Klein with BMO Markets. Please go ahead.
Ari Klein: Thank you. Tony, you mentioned the strength of U.S. travel to overseas markets. Maybe can you update us on what you’re seeing as far as international visitation into the U.S. and your outlook there and maybe what drives the resurgence?
A – Tony Capuano: Sure. So I’m going to ask Leeny to remind me the exact percentage. But historically, the percentage of inbound international into the U.S. market has historically always been relatively modest, I think, sub-5%, if memory serves. And so as borders open, you’re starting to see that recover, but it is not nearly as impactful as outbound U.S. into some of these international markets, as we’ve talked about in the past. Now the exception to that I will tell you is if you look at a couple of individual cities, Aryeh. And so just to give you a flavor, we were just looking at this the other day, use New York as an example and that may not surprise you a great deal. If you go back to 2019, the international traveler’s share of transient room nights in New York in 2019.
was 12%. In the second quarter, we actually exceeded that. In the second quarter of this year, 13% of transient room nights in the New York were international inbound. That city really stands out. There’s only a handful of other U.S. — major U.S. cities that are double digits. Washington — or excuse me, Miami, is 12% in the quarter. It was about 15% back in 2019. San Francisco was 11% back in 2019. It was actually 10% in the second quarter. Hawaii, the state of Hawaii as a destination, was 12% in 2019 and it was actually 10% in the second quarter. So hopefully, that gives you a bit of a flavor.
Ari Klein: Yes, I appreciate it. And then in the U.S. specifically, on the development pipeline, are you seeing any differences in the ability for owners to finance higher end or bigger project hotels versus the smaller ones that are maybe more selective?
A – Leeny Oberg: So I’ll start, and Tony, jump in. So the old saying continues to be true that proven markets, proven brands, proven developers, proven owners always wins out. And that is still the case. So it really depends on the project. I will say that we’ve seen such great impact from renovated hotels that I think there is the reality that an existing hotel that is not a new development project, that’s not kind of not earning money for quite a while, that those are easier to do, especially when they’re turning it into a fantastic representation of a particular brand. And I think those are getting done. But I think the reality is that both with the level of interest rates and the loan-to-values that are being required is that it’s tougher to make these deals penciled. So they are happening. They’re getting done. They’re just not getting done at the same pace that they were before.
Ari Klein: Thanks for the color.
Operator: Thank you. We’ll take our next question from Michael Bellisario with Baird. Please go ahead.
