The global hotel and resorts company saw business travel revenue per available room increase by three percent year-on-year in the final quarter of 2024, and the group expects to see something similar throughout 2025.

Christopher Nassetta, the chief executive officer of Hilton Worldwide, said during an earnings call to investors: "As we look to the year ahead, we feel incrementally a bit better than we did a quarter ago."

New figures shows that in Europe, Hilton achieved occupancy of 74.4 per cent in the fourth quarter. This figure represents a 1.9 percent increase on the same period in 2023.

And on a worldwide basis, occupancy reached 69.9 percent in the fourth quarter, which represents a 3.5 percent rise in relation to travel revenue per available room.

Nassetta thinks that the broader economic landscape, including Donald Trump's return to the White House, will prove to be beneficial for the Hilton group.

Hilton’s revenue rose to $11.2 billion, up from $10.2 billion in 2023, and Nassetta expects that trend to continue in 2025.

He explained: "There is a broad belief, and I would say fairly consistent amongst the folks that I talked to across a broad range of industries, that people think that the opportunity for economic growth in the short to intermediate term will be better."

Nassetta believes travellers accept that they will probably have to pay more for their travel in 2025. Despite this, he doesn't expect it to have a negative impact on demand.

He said: "If you talk to all accounts, if you talk to large, medium, small, almost without exception, people are broadly saying that they're going to travel more.

"They broadly understand that they're going to pay more for their travel because they understand the environment they're living in."