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1. Millions Await Total Solar Eclipse
The long-anticipated total solar eclipse will occur on Monday and will be visible across North America. The eclipse will last up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds and will be the first visible total eclipse in the United States since 2017, Reuters reports.
“Some cities among the path of totality include: Mazatlan, Mexico; San Antonio, Austin and Dallas, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; Erie, Pennsylvania; both Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, site of the famed waterfall, and Montreal, Quebec,” the news outlet reports.
Federal officials are estimating 5 million people will travel to be in the path of totality. Hoteliers in the path have been planning programming and revenue managing around the projected influx of travel, HNN’s Dana Miller reports.
2. Traders Anticipate Fewer Rate Cuts
After the latest jobs report this past Friday showed the U.S. added more jobs than anticipated in March, traders are now projecting only one or two rate cuts to the Federal Reserve’s borrowing costs this year, the Wall Street Journal reports. Inflation has been cooling, but not enough for the Fed to cut rates amid a strong job market and economy.
“Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said last week that the central bank would hold off on cutting rates if inflation doesn’t subside. Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said Friday she was concerned that inflation declines might stall and warned that it was ‘much too soon to think about cutting interest rates,’” the news outlet reports.
3. Ashford To Save Millions in Plan To Go Private
Dallas-based hospitality firm Ashford could save millions of dollars through Founder, Chairman and CEO Monty Bennett’s plan to delist the company’s shares of common stock from the New York Stock Exchange, CoStar News’ Candace Carlisle reports.
The company is awaiting stockholder approval, and the process could begin this summer.
“Ashford is taking these steps to ‘avoid the substantial cost and expense of being a public reporting company’ and enhance the long-term stockholder value, the company's executives said. In all, Ashford expects to save more than $2.5 million on an annual basis on the proposal,” Carlisle reports.
4. Hotel101 Set To Become Public Company
Philippines-based Hotel101, the hotel operations division of DoubleDragon Corp., is merging with British Virgin Islands-based JVSPAC Acquisition Corp. in a move that will allow the former to go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange, HNN’s Terence Baker reports.
Hotel101 is expected to have an equity value of $2.3 billion, and the move will fund further global expansion for the company. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.
5. Companies Consider Legal Responsibilities of Bleisure Travel
The popularity of bleisure travel, which is blended business and leisure travel, has remained high after the pandemic, and as the segment grows, companies are wondering where their responsibilities begin and end when it comes to covering their employees, the New York Times reports.
“Companies are responsible for knowing where their employees are during a business trip, covering expenses if an accident or emergency occurs, securing new lodging if a hotel is damaged, even swapping out a broken down rental car. Still, it’s not entirely clear if that coverage ends completely after the conference or the last client meeting,” the newspaper reports.