Dear Insiders,
Finally, infection rates and the weather are in sync – and the mood is clearly brightening up. The run on pharmacies in Germany to transfer the paper vaccination pass into a digital version tells a lot. But nonetheless, the situation is still fragile. Entrepreneurs as well as each individual still have to be mindful about their responsibility. Vaccinations are no carte blanche, and not every vaccine provides the promised effect as we learned from Curevac this week.
Again and again, there are incalculable depressions. Wearing masks a few weeks longer is nothing compared to the dangerous Delta variation that is currently cutting new corona paths and could lead to increased travel restrictions.
Everyone still in the Covid-19 grip is afraid of the latter: business and MICE hotels. Fairmas recorded a pitiful 13.8% occupancy and 10.60 euros of RevPAR in its statistics for May across Germany's A cities.
City hotels are truly suffering. In this respect, the initiative of the four hotel groups of 25hours, Motel One, Accor Northern Europe and Vienna House that aim at starting a joint marketing campaign to boost business travel is a great idea. They are also calling on other hotels to join in!
And this news from Wednesday is extremely pleasing: Expo Real will be taking place again in October! Finally, things are getting physical again with roughly 300 main exhibitors from 25 countries so far divided across six halls. Only vaccinated, tested and recovered visitors are allowed, which will provide safety among all those ups and downs.
Our "World of Hospitality" will be located in hall A2 next to the restaurant and is happy about the initial eight co-exhibitors. Until June 23, you can join us as a co-exhibitor at a reduced fee. You will find all the details on our page 1.
The pandemic has set back everything and everybody. It is a long way back, also for Novum Hospitality. CEO David Etmeman is granting us the first interview after slipping under the umbrella of the Economic Stabilisation Fund in December 2020 – as the only hotel group so far. He talks with Susanne Stauss on the fund, the aids and a selected pipeline. He aims at paying his full lease again from January 1, 2022.
Full resort hotels will likely be seen in Austria in July and August – also because many guests prefer to go on holiday right in front of their doorstep instead of travelling to far places. Many guests were thus only "borrowed" this year say Austrian tourist experts and hoteliers who simultaneously ask: How many of them will we be able to keep? Fred Fettner attended the discussions at the ÖHV congress.
I would be very happy if you would join us at our HITT in September. Additional names were added to the top-class programme this week: accordingly, the Accor Paris CTO accepted our invitation, as well as the globally acting Baker McKenzie law firm, Invesco Real Estate and the Zech Group from Bremen. To win over such renowned companies, our Advisory Committee of four put its contacts and passion for the think tank and the issue for debate to the test. I will introduce you to these four people today on our page 1. Or you can check them out at www.hitt.world. Only three more names are missing now, then our programme will be complete.
This issue, too, would not be complete without the latest reports on the modified Ringhotels strategy, the no longer standardised Novotel brand, the new German Travel Insurance Fund, the latest personnel news and our market news mix.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
