Dear Insider,

There are still politicians out there who don't just congratulate themselves, but also listen carefully to criticism. At our HOT premier last week, one might have wondered whether that's because this first dialogue – the "Window to Politics" - was dominated by three women? Everything just sounded so pragmatic. The only man in this group was a perfect complement. As COO of Extendam, a European private equity company, Matthieu Dracs knew how to formulate investor interests in a brisk and succinct manner.

Sarah Douag felt the fresh breeze through the window. Moderator Ufi Ibrahim, now Chief Executive of the investor club Energy and Environment Alliance (EEA), also knows politics from the inside (e.g. through the WTTC) and brought the statements to the point; Susanne Kraus-Winkler, newly appointed Chairwoman of the Federal Tourism and Leisure Industry Division in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, criticised the EU repeatedly and clearly in her role as lobbyist. But Dr. Nikolina Brnjac, MEP (Member of the European Parliament) and former Croatian Minister of Tourism, stood her ground - and in the end urged the hospitality industry to work together with the EU.

We need to come together! And take advantage of the new proximity to the EU for next year's HOT Edition 2 (we're working on the date!).

The feeling of "We are Europe" also pervaded the first pan-European conference of the Best Western Hotel Family (BWH), which was attended by 1,200 members. Through the interview with the two heads of the main regions Central Europe and Italy/Malta, Marcus Smola and Sara Digiesi, we learn how a consortium turns into a consulting team. The group remains diversified from 12-room hotels to white label partners; it also helps its hoteliers with "hidden" key money and discounts on energy purchases, among other things, as Massimiliano Sarti discovered.

Brand USA is fumbling around completely in the dark. Trump cut 80% of the national marketing organisation's budget last week. There is a sense of helplessness; tourist arrivals will probably fall by 10% this year. Hyatt is already cutting 30% of its team in the US Global Care Centre. No comment is also a comment. Sylvie Konzack has captured facts, figures and moods.

Let's stay cheerful: Hotel transactions in Europe pick up in the middle of the year, as Christie & Co showed us in figures at HOT. And even the investment market in Germany, which had fallen far behind, is back on track, as the transactions of the brokers in the first half of the year show. The Spanish Barceló Group reports excellent results for 2024 and is now handing over to the next generation.

The brand landscape also continues to be cheerful: Minor has just launched four new brands in one go. There are no hotels yet. The main thing is to attract investors... When will this over-flagging in the industry simply stop? Okay, I'm not going to get upset about it now - though later.

The WTTC has now presented practical action plans for destinations with overcrowding. So that the locals can also make a living from tourism. The shrinking figures in Thailand currently show just how quickly tourism can go into decline. And the locals are already fearing for their jobs.

Our VIP news and the News Mix will hopefully keep you in a good mood again today. The heroes of our Public News find what happens to them less amusing: In Germany, all products with "sustainable" descriptions such as "climate-neutral" or "biodegradable" are to be penalised more severely. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is facing an EU antitrust complaint: The little subsidiary wants to advertise on its website with overviews by AI models and so crush the publishers. How beautiful and human this little side news item sounds: South Tyrol had to cancel 400,000 stamps.

And without human expertise, requests for proposals cannot be customised. The "RFP season", the time for corporate bookings, is already in full swing again. The younger generation is increasingly opting for sustainable offers when making travel decisions, which means that there is a new booking potential that is still classified as "unmanaged". Our content partner Quality Reservations explains how to deal with this in their own article on the Marketplace.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief