Dear Insiders,

Biodiversity is more than the protection of wild  flowers, endangered honey bees and others insects. It is also about the deliberate destruction of forests and the erosion of mountain slopes as  well as about the hotelier's responsibility for nature on their  doorstep. Resorts, in particular, will need to address this. Those who  don't will soon find themselves in trouble with the law and face  penalties as well.

Many lawyers are already preparing for such an  occurrence. The issue has given rise to a new specialty field for them  closely linked with sustainability, e.g. Climate Risk Lawyers. The young  Cambridge graduate Zaneta Sedilekova has become such an expert, and at  our Think Tank in June she was able to set out crystal-clear, with  youthful verve, great passion and enormous detailed knowledge, what  awaits us. Her presentation was a "wake-up call", not only for HITT  executives, but hopefully for you today. And I mean that in the most  positive sense.

Those who begin to think about these issues early  on will recognise that biodiversity is an area of "low-hanging fruit."  Things that most hoteliers have cherished for a long time as a matter of  course, but do not know how much this will help them in their ESG  balance sheet in the future. Sarah Douag interviewed Zaneta again after  her talk and well-deserved summer vacation - a great, understandable article for Biodiversity Newbees.

The other big topic today seems  far drier than biodiversity. But with USALI, even that has its justification. In 2025, the next new (12th) edition will be available;  Macy Marvel has summarised the upcoming changes tothe standardised  accounting framework for the industry, in particular with regard to the  headings ESG criteria, services, loyalty programmes and balance sheet  accounts.

Speaking of resorts: A glut of capital is about to  flood this segment. Spanish investment giant Azora is just launching a  €2 billion resort fund - focused on the Mediterranean and targeting  Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, but also Germany and Belgium.

I was wondering while editing this message: How will these resorts be  built, how will they be geared to climate change, sustainability and  changing tourist flows? Or will it just be another concrete block, trimmed for maximum profit per square meter? Where is the responsibility  of the investors? Before Corona, resorts were still considered highly  toxic.

In Germany, insolvencies are now increasing massively  across all sectors. Of the nearly 120,000 establishments analysed, 11.9%  (in absolute terms: 14,219) of all restaurants, pubs, snack bars and cafés are classified as at risk of insolvency. Equally frustrating:  Tourist destinations are strikingly weak in their digital marketing. And  even more drastic: Ghosting is on the rise. More and more applicants simply do not turn up for work despite signing a contract or otherwise  quit during the training phase.

Today's mix of motivation and  head-shaking continues in market news and personnel. Finally, I would like to motivate you to take another look at our additional content on  our public pages Marketplace and today especially on the Expo Real page  (both in new web design): There, you will find two short interviews,  which we conducted with our BRICKS & BRAINS sponsors Adina and KN  General Agency.

Likewise, you will find the programme of the Expo  Real conference "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" in a news item, which  for the first time is included under a single focus: sustainability! You  will find a number of unknown names in the five panels - and it is  precisely these that you should get to know, because they have greatest  influence in the interplay between politics and the industry.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems 

editor-in-chief

Dear Insiders,

Arabella Hospitality, based in Munich, is back  as an active hotel operator eager for expansion. Its new strategy  focuses, among other things, on the fresh franchise soft brands from  Marriott and on the two luxury classics St. Regis (also Marriott) and Rosewood (New World). Noble or efficient, expensive or affordable. With  this, CEO Karl-Heinz Pawlizki serves two poles of the market where money  can be made. 

The new ultra-luxury Rosewood Munich hotel will open slightly later than originally planned, now in mid-October, but  still with the anticipated €1,000 starting rate. Everything has to fit. During my flying visit this week, the workmen were still in full swing. Just in time for the Oktoberfest, on the other hand, Marriott's second Residence Inn opens, but this time operated by Arabella - a first. A  solid, pleasant extended-stay product in a prime location; you can literally smell the cash.   

Arabella intends to grow further in  German-speaking Europe (DACH) and in Spain. "We can still open a hotel  anywhere," says the CEO, "but please always without rigid standards!"  This applies just as much to city hotels as to the leisure destinations.  The new impetus for the new strategy stems from the transformation of  Schörghuber Holding: Everything is decentralised again!   

In my  view, this makes for an exciting read today as it shows both how to  pivot and how to optimise strategies. And equally exciting is our second  mega-story today: The Energy & Environment Alliance in London, which hardly anyone in continental Europe knows about. The EEA is in the  process of defining the (EU) standards and definitions for sustainable  hotel real estate and its financing. And with powerful partners like  BREEAM at its side. The EEA's members include many committed hotel  investors, operators, banks, lawyers and many others, and they all want  to have a say and help shape the future of their hospitality real estate! 

Ufi Ibrahim founded EEA in 2020; insiders are most  likely to recognise her name from her time as CEO of UKHospitality, the  British trade association. Or from her ten years at WTTC. She is a  dazzling networker and an analytical strategist.  

Now she is  once again trying to give structure and a face to a helpless industry.  Under the pressure of ESG regulations, Ufi starts at the most delicate  point: with the investors and the NON-existing shoulder-to-shoulder  between hotel investors and hotel operators. A mega-plan, a  mega-project.

In our news today, you can read about a new global  study on shopping tourism, which has by no means reached its full  potential. In Berlin, German tourism professionals fluffed the opening  of the National Platform on the Future of Tourism, and the  hospitality industry association Dehoga is now getting a lot of "pro"  votes from the public in the fight to keep the reduced VAT rate in  place. After gastro sales disappointed in the summer, the tax issue is  now slowly becoming existential. 

And last but not least, today  is about ourselves: We are launching the first pages this morning as  part of our website relaunch. For the first time you will see the Event  pages and the Marketplace in the new design. Just in time for the real  estate fair, we present our exhibitors on our Expo Real page! We have also integrated the previously separate HITT Think Tank site into our  core product. 

On all public pages we will offer more free  content for everyone in the future: Expert contributions from content  partners (such as from F&B Heroes today), colourful announcements  and news with real utility value - primarily around the topics of  sustainability and digitalisation. As always with hospitalityInside, the editors make a careful selection of news and of course only from  reliable sources. 

Just take a look... We are open to your  suggestions. The switch of the magazine from the old to the new system  will follow shortly. Along with the more than 30,000 articles the  editorial team has written since 2005. 

We'll keep writing then! 

Till next Friday!

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Dear Insiders,

The Lehman crisis of 2008/09 caught the financiers, Covid-19 the operators and today’s multiple crisis now catches the project developers. They are no longer able to secure finance. "They too must now understand that everything has a cycle," the manager of a hotel group told me this week, who of course - like many - is hoping that, as the pipeline dries up, the cost of land, project planning and construction will plummet again.

The project developer market is facing a consolidation, and that across all asset classes. The hotel industry is still in a relatively good position compared to residential property or offices. B&B and Dorint are optimistic, as is Radisson, although their project in Cologne is affected by the insolvencies of Corestate and Gerchgroup and the domino effect those have created. Max Luscher, Dirk Iserlohe and Max Gross explain their situation and point of view.

Beatrix Boutonnet also provides more general insight today and lets consultants, financial experts and investors have their say. The overall forecast: One-third of project developers are likely to go bankrupt and no new construction will be financed by 2025.

But let's talk about more positive things: An unknown but very socially minded hotelier family from Menorca invented the "Solidarity Room" in the first Corona summer: Whoever books this room will donate the entire amount to Caritas for people in need. The idea has become a national project, massively supported by Caritas Spain and the Dutch sustainability bank Triodos. This is best practice of the most social kind, just as the "S" in ESG would like it to be.

As a hotelier, how much good do you do for people in need or the community around you? Let me know! Journalism is also about publishing good things.

Austrian hoteliers now really have to worry about ESG and in particular about the S in that acronym. Policymakers are now beginning to collect sustainability data from the industry. In line with the new EU reporting obligation (valid as of this year), every hotel entrepreneur must participate, collect measurements in the company and also disclose how active they are in the social sphere. The relevant ministry and the sector together prepared the questionnaires, by company size. Everyone understands the drive, says our colleague Fred Fettner.

We can no longer deny climate change. That's why one US-American scientist is imploring the nations of the world to cooperate unconditionally and without borders. Otherwise, the follow-up costs of the disasters will bring about national bankruptcy. And very quickly.

Some things can make you dizzy, because still - almost everywhere in the world - money, greed and power continue to drive economies along old lines. The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund is investing one billion euros in 24 Meliá hotels in Spain and 27 hotels in Japan. Sarah Douag brings us the background.

The summer season in France has been analysed by Macy Marvel. The 2022 record has been broken, and occupancy declined on some coastal regions. Nevertheless, RevPAR shot up.

The "Wanderlust" on wheels is unbroken, only a few small details have changed. Otherwise, mobile travel is bursting with potential. And the fuel takes caravanning and mobile home fans to the most beautiful areas.

Business travellers, on the otherhand, do not always attach importance to beautiful routes, but certainly to cheap taxi fares. Munich wants to make it possible. The trial starts there today, 1 September. Hamburg and Berlin want to follow suit.

We round off our edition today with the usual interesting mix of market news and personnel, and we also commemorate two hoteliers who have passed away: Hans-Peter Kolditz, a well-known name from Accor Germany, and Elena David, who was CEO of the Italian UNA Group for 16 years, among others.

I wish you a pleasant week.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

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

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

Dear Insiders,

The Rhodes wildfire disaster is yet another reminder to take climate change seriously. The fire has destroyed not only large tracts of the natural landscape but livelihoods too - and is likely also to mean some island residents must flee. The number "climate refugees" is therefore increasing. I first heard this term over 20 years ago. Now, it is taking a frightening shape. 

This makes it all the more important to focus on sustainable concepts that reduce emissions - e.g. buildings made of wood. Many are able to warm to the wooden hotel: The wood conveys a sense of comfort and well-being, from high-rise buildings to resorts. But not everything is made of real wood, as Karla Walther writes today. The first green-washing suspects are already apparent. There is also still a lack of much needed clarity in (German) legislation, and this is accompanied by a lack of concrete data for comparisons.

It is striking that Austrian private hotels in particular are ahead of the game here, implementing their projects with bold architects and demonstrating CO2 savings. The "wooden age" has begun, and with it the discussion about one of the most valuable renewable raw materials.  

The human resource is not one that simply grows, at least not in the hospitality industry. Many employers are therefore happy that many employees are accepting their offer of the 4-day work week. Work environment researcher Jutta Rump from the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences, on the other hand, surprises us when she says: I think the 4-day week is fatal. She thinks it will have a devastating snowball effect.  

Two committed German hoteliers, on the other hand, have set a very different snowball rolling: They travel regularly to Southeast Asia to bring young talent back with them to their hotel or to other hotels they are in close personal contact with. It works because they use their good name and sensitive approach to gain the trust of parents in Indonesia or Thailand and help their children get a solid education. The rules of the game are clear on both sides and a word is a word. And help also means helping people in Germany - including with German authorities.  

What David Depenau from the Hotel Weissenhäuser Strand on the Baltic Sea and Wolfgang Nickel from Saxony-Anhalt achieve deserves great praise. Nickel's commitment here has given rise to a specialised recruitment agency. Both hoteliers decided to act because they have been waiting far too long for politicians to get things moving with Germany's new immigration legislation, which has still not been signed off.  

At our Think Tank four weeks ago, HRS and Siemens revealed their plans to step up their joint "green standards" (Gree Stay Initiative), for both corporate travellers and hotels on the OTA's website. Now Booking.com is taking the next step and, thanks to clever software, is comparing Green Labels with the information provided by the hotels. And so the story repeats itself, as with bookings, as the OTAs once again attempt to remain masters of the hotel data.  

In Amsterdam, hoteliers are fighting hard against the renewed increase in the tourist tax. For them, it is the wrong way in the fight against Overtourism. If necessary, they plan to take their battle to court. In Germany, the debate about 7 or 19% VAT in the catering industry continues, despite the summer vacations. And just before the vacation month of August, IHG is once again making a name for itself with a "carbon-free" hotel in the UK.  

HospitalityInside will now also take a summer break. We will be back in the office from 21 August and our next issue will be published on 25 August. We wish you all a good summer season and/or a relaxing vacation.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems

Dear Insiders,

Chinese groups stumble, Choice gains, Wyndham recovers and Best Western freezes. Finally, there’s movement in the Top Ten ranking of the largest hotel chains by Hotels Magazine. Macy Marvel explains why. A look at the collaborations such as Leading, Preferred, GHA or HotelREZ is interesting: Either they’re struggling or they post massive growth.

The Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group (FMTG) has long since decided that it will be a grower, with a lot of speed and the unconditional will to achieve top quality. The recently announced Falkensteiner Parkhotel Lake Garda will cost €140 million. It will be paid for by the buyers of the 170 apartments in 11 buildings and the guests of the (now only) 97 rooms, 60% of which are suites. A mega project in Salò, with lake view.

What FMTG has practised on a small scale so far will be continued on a large scale in the future: financing by means of quickly available cash from sales and crowdfunding together with the security of prime locations and highly specialised concepts. CEO Otmar Michaeler and Supervisory Board President Erich Falkensteiner have Italy fully in focus - for years to come. Massimiliano Sarti was present at the press briefing in Milan.

The years are passing quickly, and baby boomers are currently giving a lot of thought to where they plan to spend the autumn of their lives. These "best agers" are currently looking for new housing models, somewhere between hotel and senior residence. All the same, Thomas Reisenzahn of Prodinger Consulting warns in his current trend report "Hotel Granny - Being old was yesterday" against lumping all age groups together.

Fred Fettner analyses and also presents some living models. But the supply is currently still far too small and finished projects are far too expensive. The good life in old age will cost you a pretty penny. Otherwise, it’s the old-age home. Is this - socio-politically important - segment also just a business for their shareholders?!? Since the real estate industry is at a standstill right now, one could also think about social responsibility for a few minutes, in the sense of the "S" of ESG...

Leisure and lifestyle are driving business in tourism everywhere, and so the international hotel group association Global Hotel Alliance reports a huge jump in sales in the first half of the year: The guests are spending more than ever before.

Tyrol, one of the very strong tourism regions in Austria, remains pragmatic, modifies its target groups and offers online ecological travel options. That's worth a little "wow" again. The hostel chain a&o has published its first sustainability report. This is their first big step towards transparency for the public. Keep it up - we need more of these positive examples. Everyone will need to start at some point!

Transparency does good. That's why HospitalityInside is supporting for the first time the new global survey from h2c, a valued specialist in hotel distribution, technologies and market research by insiders. Managing Director Michaela Papenhoff is trying to find out what smart systems operators are using to automate the customer experience, what challenges they face and how they want to optimise their strategies. We put the call for participation in the survey on our Page 1 today. With this, every employee of a hotel group can take part (until 16 August) and expect a more in-depth summary as a reward.

Our News Mix has not yet fallen victim to the summer break, so we too will be collecting this market news and more our issue next Friday.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems

Dear Insiders,

What’s the state of the German hotel finance and real estate industry as we go into the summer break? Looking at the semi-annual transaction figures from international brokers and consultants yesterday, the conclusion can only be "in the basement". Nevertheless, hotels remain an interesting asset, our financial specialist Beatrix Boutonnet claims, having surveyed a range of hotel-critical experts on the subject. At the moment, no asset class is scoring well in Germany: Investments and transactions have jumped nowhere this year.

Yet the renewed high tourist demand means the industry is still scoring plus points. On the other hand, cost pressures are now intensifying and brokers are already forecasting real estate sales from late autumn, along with bankruptcies and value discounts. Some are also preparing further acquisitions in the background. Inflation and interest rates are the biggest threat. And there are no signs yet of the trend reversing.

In another background conversation this week, I heard that there are fewer and fewer investments in Germany coming from Germans; foreign investors are knocking, with a victory smile on their faces. This is how incompetent politicians destroy entire industries and undermine Germany as a business location.

Dirk Iserlohe has decided the only way is to help himself: The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Honestis AG, parent company of Dorint Hotels, is taking legal action in 14 German states to recover tens of millions of euros in Corona bridging aid promised by the government but still not paid. Iserlohe has decided to see this through alone, because the hotel lobbyists are focused only on saving the reduced VAT rate. Everything else has been forgotten. Corona is long gone.

Should Iserlohe win his court battle, all other medium-sized hotel groups would also benefit. Yet there's not a sound from them. Solidarity is a foreign word in this industry. Instead many of them run from event to event this summer, partying with their buddies and simply counting the years until retirement.

The Italians are moving very smoothly through the crisis. Giuseppe Pagliara simply doesn't care about rising inflation. The CEO of the Nicolaus Group just gets on with it. Massimiliano Sarti discovered this unknown group and its Valtur sub-brands. Similar to the market leader Alpitour, they are pushing their expansion now, of all times, in the middle of the crisis, via the hotel division and new brands. A new story from tour operator to vertical tourism group.

At the beginning of the second half of the year, the personnel merry-go-round is spinning again everywhere, and despite the low mood, there is still plenty of news from the real estate market. Why not boost your spirits with a look at the world's richest people and highest-paid CEOs? Or let the slots in the casino ring and go home with $40 million like Robert Goldstein, CEO of Las Vergas Sands Corporation, did last year.

Yours,

Maria Pütz-Willems

Dear Insiders,

Inge Huijbrechts, Senior VP Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications at Radisson Hotel Group gave her first speech in the EU Parliament last week. And she spoke for the entire industry. A unique opportunity, even if she was only allowed to speak for a total of 13 minutes. "I was able to show that our industry has answers - both for society and for the planet," she reports with relief. The issue she spoke about was of course sustainable tourism and CO2 reduction activities.

Her appearance as a newbee and the personal talks with the MEPs afterwards motivate her immensely. Today, she provides encouragement for her hotelier colleagues and, in particular for the partners in the real estate industry to more collaboration here today and again. In fact, Inge was also supposed to talk about teamwork that day at our HITT Think Tank. Her colleague Sven Wiltink took over and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the industry with Glenn Mandziuk from SHA and Willem van der Zee from Pandox.

And this debate at the end of the Think Tank also ended with an appeal: "Collaboration is essential and will need to be fixed in contract," predicts Tony Williams of Buro Happold. And Eric Hofmeister of Siemens was one of the first to call on hospitality leaders to make a voluntary commitment. Only then can things get rolling, and only then can leaders be measured in their responsibility.

At this HITT we felt for the first time that the circle of Movers & Shakers is growing. They want to push their industry boundaries now! But when I look at my personal wish list of HITT guests, I’m still missing a few. In Europe, floods and storms are becoming more frequent, Spain was already suffering from the summer heat in the spring, and Saudi Arabia is expecting a daily temperature of 60 degrees Celsius for the first time this year.

The report on the final discussion at the HITT is again freely available on our page 1, garnished with a second collection of photos from our 6th Think Tank.

Sustainability is not for cowards. Olaf and Rainer Kerssen from the Ringhotel Teutoburger Wald in northern Germany have now made the family hotel self-sufficient in terms of energy. The two brothers have created their own mix of photovoltaics, combined heat and power plants, electricity storage and intelligent load management using normal common sense, without any ESG pressure at all - with huge energy savings. This is best practice at its best! The chains are welcome to take a look. There are more of these movers and shakers in the SME sector.

Unintentionally, this issue focuses once again on sustainablity, but in its many facets. The EU Court of Auditors is urging individual countries to be more transparent following its latest report on the achievement of climate targets. Some believe they can get away with buying green certificates. Patrizia AG, a large investor in Germany, has stated: Investments will be fewer this year, but they will be greener. And business travellers are becoming more conscious of ecological travel, says another report.

The DZT (German National Tourist Board) also celebrates itself in managing to make tourism data digitally accessible in the year 2023. And for the Dehoga Bundesverband, the final tug-of-war over the hoped-for extension of the 7% VAT rate in the restaurant industry in 2024 has begun.

At Deutsche Hospitality, CEO Oliver Bonke has been promoted to CEO H-World International (ex Huazhu). Though the territory for which he's responsible has not grown. Is this perhaps where the framework for something new grows first, something we don't yet know about?

I wish you an exciting read, our issue today has a great deal of pragmatism in it.

Yours, 

Maria Pütz-Willems

Dear Insiders,

The tourism industry and hotel industry are the CO2 scapegoats and  climatic beacons of hope at the same time. Hotels are firmly located in  an economic and social network: this puts them under fire from all  sides. The pressure is increasing massively. Solutions are provided by  digitalization and AI or by governments – by cutting knots by law.  Businesses, which are not prepared for ESG, will have no chance to survive.

The statements of renowned sustainability experts on this matter at this  week's HospitalityInside Think Tank in Berlin were very clear. And the  reaction of the participants showed: This group is willing to implement  sustainability and realise it with more speed. And the rest?

Sophie Herrmann, Partner at the transformation consulting Systemiq,  advised the industry in her keynote: "The industry has to bundle its  forces to scale sustainable solutions and also make them visible, first  of all." And Florian Huber of EYCarbon pointed out with the following  sentence that sustainability applies to EVERYONE and EVERYONE has to  take action: "During reporting, Thyssen Krupp will report the same  figures as Arabella Hospitality."

This HITT was another highlight with its honest and open discussions,  which were praised by experienced experts from outside the industry to  the skies. Today, you will find a first summary including photo  impressions on our page 1, available for everyone as we want this  message of sustainability to be multipied further! More photos and more  content next week.

While we all had exciting times on board the  ship and absorbed many new things, Macy Marvel analysed the refinancing  process in the hotel transaction market for us. Within the next few  months, a growing number of distressed assets will appear; however,  funds and private equity are already lurking around the corner to join  in the debt financing at the "most appropriate" time.

The slump  of the hospitality sector actually helps young players such as Bob W.  With its mixture of all serviced apartment types, full-service hotels,  F&B, lifestyle, all-round digitalization and hotels with only a  single employee, the Finnish group around co-founder and CEO Niko  Karstikko is well on the way to becoming a jack of all trades. You can  simply enjoy this article. It almost contains no figures at all, and all  the more, we are looking forward to an update with Bob W. in a few  months to find out what goals can be realized in what way. After all,  Bob W. stands for "The Best of both Worlds". 

Despite their  vulnerability, hotels remain a valuable asset during the crisis.  Meanwhile, hotels relevant for investment now drive the entire market  volume. There is also positive news from the world of business travel:  large companies are sending significantly more employees on business trips!

Nonetheless, depending on the location, category and  concept, many hotels should still be careful: All across Germany, the  number of insolvencies is on the rise, even in construction. In the  whole of Europe, an increasing number of companies are introducing  robots – even in catering. These are two indicators for a coming period of consolidation.

This is why the DZG think tank's lobbyists went  to the German Bundestag in Berlin last week and talked to members of  parliament. My colleague Frank Tetzel, who has one foot in politics,  took a look at the event.

We will go on right in the spirit of  the think tank and and continue to reflect, among other things, on this  hyper dynamism that is leaving the industry just as breathless as it did  during the Corona standstill.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems