Connecting the Dots: Assessing Impact of Population Shifts, Corporate HQ Moves

by Rich Luna

Editor’s Note: Connecting the Dots is a series of monthly conversations with Michael Dominguez, FASAE, CHSE, President and CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI). The series examines issues in the global economy that will “connect the dots” to be helpful not only in business but in life as well. This installment is moderated by Ashly Balding, Executive Vice President & Chief Sales Officer at ALHI.

Ashly Balding: Mike, you've talked about shifts in the Southeast. Tell us why that matters.?

Michael Dominguez: Well, you know, it was kind of under the radar during COVID, but there has been not only a population shift but a shift in corporate headquarters. If any of our hotel Members are looking at that, they may have to rethink redeployment and what that means to where they visit and how often they visit. If you are looking at leisure guests, they're going to be coming from different parts of the world. I spoke at a SITE event and one of the things I mentioned to them is you have these incentive programs and you've probably built budgets where these people have lived in the past. Does it change because people have now moved to the Southeast? It matters. But there has been this huge migration of people that have moved to the Southeast, and it's everything between Texas and Florida. The Carolinas are on fire -- North Carolina, South Carolina. But the thing in Texas, most specifically that I don't think people are paying attention to, Texas is now the number one state for Fortune 500 headquarters, overtaking New York and California. There's one slide I show in particular where there are all these arrows, and there are all these headquarters coming from across the country into the state of Texas and specifically Dallas. I joked everybody can stop because the traffic here is bad. Don't need any more traffic here in Dallas.?

Balding: So true.?

Dominguez: But in all seriousness, what you are finding is under the radar where people aren't paying attention. We now have more people employed in finance and insurance than the state of New York. New York has always been thought of as the financial headquarters of America. That is now shifted to Texas, and that is a dynamic shift in how we do business because everybody's now coming through Texas. Is it a coincidence that we're building another terminal at DFW (airport)? Think about that and what is the need and what is the projection down the road. But the one thing I'm looking at, and people haven't really paid attention to, Texas announced that it's going to start its own stock exchange that is going to compete with the New York Stock Exchange, and you're talking about Blackrock and Citadel money behind it. It's real. But if somebody was reading that, they would be saying, why would they do that? It goes right back to we have more people employed in finance and insurance than in the state of New York. That is a dramatic shift. When you look at manufacturing that has moved into the Southeast, that's why people have moved into the Southeast. It has been a huge shift in how we do business, and I think everybody needs to at least look under the hood and see what that means for them.?