Dear Insider,
The Easter bunny didn't put any solutions in the sector's basket, only black or green eggs. On the one hand, the gloom has increased due to insolvencies, yet on the other, the superlative figures are going through the roof. It feels like the gap between decline and new opportunities is widening almost every week. Today, we talk to Motel One about the planned IPO, about pop stars such as Adele and Taylor Swift, who generate more millions in revenue for every destination than footballers, and about Benelux with its huge hospitality potential. Austria is getting ESG hotels up and running with subsidies and sustainability bonuses, while Switzerland is pooling industry data in a new database. And the WTTC sees trillions shining in the global GDP sky.

This stands opposite the insolvencies of former dream resorts such as Almdorf Seinerzeit in Austria, the clear signs of a dying hospitality industry in the German-speaking Europe region, the deep fall in European hotel transactions and the collapse of German transactions to nothing. Find out more, including about our HITT Think Tank in Amsterdam. The announcement of the EBT that have almost doubled (2023 vs. 2022) was as modestly worded in this week's Motel One press release as the fateful decision to buy back shares. In conversation with me, founder Dieter Müller remained both modest and cautious. Motel One is now climbing higher into hotel heaven via The Cloud One (brand). Creating a company valuation of over €4 billion with just 94 hotels, budget prices and small rooms - that is a hospitality story that no one has ever written before.

Germany is gripped by event fever this summer - ten Adele concerts, one by Taylor Swift and four weeks of the European Football Championship. And the ladies beat the footballers hands down: Adele alone is set to bring the city of Munich half a billion euros. 

Festivals, concerts, exhibitions. Brussels will also benefit greatly from this at weekends. And more: Sarah Douag uses many figures to describe the potential of the underestimated Benelux region. 

To increase the sustainability potential of its (private) hotels, the Austrian Hotel and Tourism Bank (OeHT) has now bundled subsidies and bonuses. Fred Fettner shows how hotels are learning about ESG.

Hotel transactions have cooled considerably in Europe and are on ice in Germany. The first quarter of 2024 was simply frustrating, as the broker figures show. All the more reason for everyone to hang on the banks' every word.  

A new study from Austria confirms the decline of small pubs in the German-speaking Europe region. The decline of the Almdorf Seinerzeit in Carinthia is equally painful for hotel insiders - it was once one of the quietest but highest RevPAR resorts in the country. Nevertheless, the WTTC sees a lot of sunshine around the tourism globe and gigantic GDP figures.

In Switzerland, the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz is once again investing in its thermal baths and casino, and in Bern a database is being set up for all accommodation. 

The sector is rocking, as the abundance of market news after just two Easter weeks shows. During this time, Motel One and Travelodge presented their 2023 balance sheets and Frank Tetzel had time for the German "game" in Berlin politics...

This link will take you directly to the updated programme of the HITT Think Tank! With Graham Miller, we have gained a professor who enjoys debating, who can explain the EU Green Claims Directive and then asks: Don't we need to rethink things more radically and implement them more quickly? 90% of the programme is ready, we are now in the middle of fine-tuning with the experts - and I can assure you: There will be great discussions, all with their finger on the pulse, both in terms of sustainability and innovation focus! More on this shortly. 

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief