Dear Insiders,
Things are the way they are. Within two months, the entire world is now sitting in the same corona boat. Everyone is suffering the same thing – albeit slightly time-delayed. The outcry of tourism and the hotel industry and their call for state rescue aid is more than justified. From the hotel companies in our vicinity, hardly anything is seeping out. Officially, nobody wants to say anything at the moment.
But behind the scenes, the priorities are clear: secure liquidity, cut costs and secure employees! The latter is different from Lehmann 2008, but the current KPIs of the hotel industry in Europe are the same or even worse than in 2008. I listened to an STR webinar yesterday, which presented the latest figures. Almost all countries are following the same pattern: as soon as the corona cases start to rise, occupancy and RevPAR hit rock bottom within ten days. Recovery will take longer: While China's economy recovers rapidly, the Western world will still be battling the virus.
A slight "consolation" comes from another direction: scientists are discussing how long the individual measures should be maintained. There is at least some doubt whether major events have to be cancelled in order to fight faster and better. Corona will remain with us all despite the containment strategy – and will return in several waves. 30 days of closed borders, locked hotels and an economic life reduced to zero will not stop the virus from returning.
Our task is to inform you from many different perspectives and to provide ourselves with new background information. If we include medical and scientific news in the future, you can be certain that we will rely on trusted scientific sources in our articles.
In addition, you will find a reference to useful links concerning corona on our front page today. We will constantly be expanding this international link list and filtering it again so as not to overwhelm you. We consider all articles in this phase as "snapshots", because things may change on an hourly basis; therefore, from now on, each of our articles will receive a "time stamp" at the end.
This week, it has become much quieter in Europe. The prescribed states of emergency are beginning to have an effect on the public. That is why we are also looking at the current situations in France, Spain, Italy and Austria. Macy Marvel analysed the long hesitation and the abrupt turnaround of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
And now finally something positive: Our survey among investors and funds have shown that almost all of them consider the corona "black swan" a seasonal event and are sticking to their long-term plans, even in the asset class hotel.
And finally something positive on our own behalf: We were so caught up in corona "fever" last week that we didn't mention in our editorial that hospitalityInside.com turned 15 on March 11! Our posts on LinkedIn for this anniversary have now reached about 10,000 people, and we would like to thank everyone for the many likes and the great comments about our team and our coverage. All this has only been possible thanks to you and through our subscribers! And just like on the first day, we look forward to fruitful discussions, collaboration, events and new subscriptions!
Today, we send a big thank you to our readers in 20 countries, in all offices and home offices around the world ...
There will be a life after coronavirus. More on that next week.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
Editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
