News & Stories
Paris. As per June 1, 2006, Dertour and Thomas Cook AG terminated the lease agreement of their Park Hotel SNC joint venture for the Moevenpick Dream Castle Hotel next to Disneyland Resort Paris. An Austrian hotel management group will take over.
Dubai. At the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, Kempinski Hotels & Resorts announced the launch of "Shaza Hotels", a new luxury lifestyle hotel brand and the first hotel brand ever to be created specifically for the Middle East and Africa.
Dubai. Budget hotels will flood the rich Arabian countries: easyHotel, London has signed a master franchise agreement with Istithmar Hotels, a subsidiary of Istithmar PJSC - an alternative investment house based in Dubai - to open a chain of 38 budget hotels across the Middle East, North Africa , India and Pakistan within the next five years.
Frankfurt/M. Last year was a record year for the European hotel investment market. According to figures from Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, 16.5 billion Euros flowed into the hotel investment market. This figure corresponds to a plus of 70% on 2004. Single transactions accounted for approximately five billion Euros, for transactions from hotel portfolios this figure stood at 11.5 billion Euros. Germany is to remain focus for investment.
Hamburg. Wealth begins with happiness. 67% of all Germans would prefer to be happy than to be rich; only 46% aspire to becoming the latter. These are the results of a recent survey undertaken by the BAT leisure research institute in Hamburg. The survey asked 2,000 participants what wealth meant to them personally.
Berlin. In 2005, the 4 and 5-star segment of the Berlin hotel market did not share the success of the markets in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Duesseldorf and Cologne, even though the German capital has far more overnight stays compared to the other cities.
Interlaken/Bern. A few hours after the presentation of the 2005 business figures and the close of the market, Victoria-Jungfrau AG announced on Thursday that it would take over the Bellevue luxury hotel in Bern. It belongs to the Swiss Federation and is located next to the Swiss federal parliament building. In fact, the hotel is a Swiss state hotel.
Kiev. International Business Centre and their wholly owned subsidiary Hotel Business Development Company have signed agreements with Hilton International to operate a 5-star luxury hotel in the capital of Ukraine, Kiev.
Madrid. Spain's two principal urban destinations, Madrid and Barcelona, are suffering of indigestion due to the rapid growth in supply, while Valencia is rapidly becoming the country's `hot' hotel market. Besides the two major international groups Sol Melia and NH Hoteles, there are a number of smaller chains, including new boutique concepts which are focusing successfully on urban locations, also in secondary and tertiary locations.