The hotel giant Hilton is seeing evidence of improvement at its US middle-market brands, including more mid-week business travel, signs the middle class is starting to participate in a recovery that has been led by high earners, CEO Chris Nassetta said Tuesday at Semafor World Economy.

Demand for hotel rooms has provided a case-in-point for the so-called “K-shaped” recovery, in which high-income households drive an outsize share of demand. Mid-tier hotels like Hampton and Hilton Garden Inn have struggled as luxury hotel brands post higher occupancy and nightly room rates.

But that is changing, Nassetta said, thanks to a combination of factors including favorable tax policy, lower interest rates, private-sector spending on AI, and public-sector infrastructure spending launched by the Biden administration. He called it a “C” recovery, for convergence.

“The middle and the bottom is going to come up ultimately to meet the top,” Nassetta said, adding later: “The tide is coming in, and the tide is unstoppable.”