Dear Insiders,
Have you returned refreshed from the summer break? Or did you, like many Italians fleeing the high prices in their own country, find yourself on a deck chair in Crete? There, on this Greek island, our colleague Massimiliano Sarti relaxed and pondered Italy's latest strange trend. And in doing so, he saved the €20 (at least!) that he would have had to pay for that deck chair if he’d stayed in Italy.
Or did you perhaps make one of the 8.55 million overnight stays Dubai announced for the first half of the year? If you were, then you contributed to a new tourism record there. The Glitzy City shines brightly again with the luxury and leisure hotels twice as expensive as they were before Covid-19. Dubai is booming again. But for how long?
We asked Dubai insiders - market experts from Accor and IHG, local hotel newcomer Azizi Development, which is set to make its own massive contribution to new (over-)supply, as well as the Global Hotel Alliance, which already sees the peak and the following slowdown. But: The Arabs are consistently implementing their vision. They are brimming with self-confidence. A comprehensive article with facts, figures and opinions.
Dubai makes Europe look old and tired (once again). Here, hotel chains can't even gloat about their increases in luxury, let alone describe them, even though they all brag about it on their balance sheets. Susanne Stauss was irritated by the communicative incompetence of at least some groups after the vacation period.
We'll stick to the positive news: Vienna shines like kings again. The city counted more than 9 million overnight stays in the 1st half of the year and 70% more revenue.
Once again to Italy: Investors do not judge the country from a deck-chair perspective. They see inflation and all the cost increases, but once again smell their opportunities in secondary destinations and resorts. Filtering out the opportunity, however, is a complex puzzle. But Massimiliano Sarti has also made his own thorough assessment and shares it today. Investors/buyers and sellers are converging.
Over the next 12 months, consumers will spend 28% more money on travel, says the latest global consumer study, but they will finance their trips differently. Hotels, at any rate, remain in demand. And, if they want to sleep sweetly in the Chocolate on the Pillow Group beds in future, they can also check in more efficiently. This is now done by an avatar, with a customised program and already in use in the hotels. Erik Florvaag speaks of a mega step forward in digitalization.
Ennismore is also making it own path with its loyalty programme, which aims to entice Accor ALL members to make more lifestyle bookings at new destinations. Let’s wait and see. We in the editorial team are also waiting to see what lies behind the new strategy of the Schörghuber Group and Arabella Hospitality. Even the new annual report didn't reveal much about that. But you will know soon.
There is more to worry about in the German hotel industry, which is entering its 4th consecutive year of losses. All thanks to incompetent politicians in Berlin, it continues to stumble forward. With the end of the summer break, things will soon get even more turbulent.
This summer has many faces. We, at least, have been reinvigorated by the sun. Now it’s your turn to benefit from this, every Friday again...
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
