News & Stories

Berlin/Vienna. The desire to travel remains, not only in Europe. Futurologist Andreas Reiter from Vienna is certain: the experience is irreplaceable, highly emotional and therefore only available in analogue form. In 2021 we will regain the freedom we have lost this year, forget our current modesty and look forward to the culture of experience in big Adreanlin jumps.

Travel will become more conscious, will no longer be possible so spontaneously, but will be gently guided by digital tools. The tourism industry as such can no longer release happiness hormones, its sexiness is dwindling, which is why it will have to fight even harder for many talents in the future.

The video interview with hospitalityInside editor-in-chief Maria Pütz-Willems about post-pandemic travel, which was produced this week, can be found below. Share it via this link. / kn

Andreas Reiter will also give a keynote address on post-pandemic travel at the Expo Real Hybrid Summit on 14 October in Munich, during the hotel conference "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" from 3-15.50 pm.

New York. The ranking of the world's biggest hotel chains remained largely unchanged at year end 2019, compared to 2018, as Asian-based groups continue to drive growth. Indian Oyo moved up to 3rd place but its continued growth could be threatened.

Munich. "Everyone can travel" has been the slogan for 20 years of Berlin's a&o Hostels, which have become the largest chain of hostels in Europe. In 2020 this slogan seems like a pious wish. The backpackers have broken away, as have school classes and groups. This puts the concept of hostels, sharing and co-living operators on the edge. But all continue to believe in the power of their flexibility and their modified concept for the younger generation. Co-Living currently focuses more on living than on the community, hostels are happy about their smaller, individual units with a mini-bathroom, which enables them to address new target groups.

Cologne. Dirk Iserlohe is not prepared to let the virus and politics ruin 15 years of reform at Dorint Hotels. He keeps a cool head and takes a detailed look at the applicable legal provisions - and so also takes politicians to task. "The bridging loan is the 'Trojan horse' of insolvency," he says, criticising what he sees and wrongly conceived state aid. "The existing 'over'-regulation in various areas of the law leads to an exponentially negative impact for our industry", he says, putting salt in the wound. His conclusion: "The involvement of the state has been of a merely palliative nature." Now, he is fighting against the existing legal provisions on "interference with the basis of the business" and is putting concrete proposals to politicians and landlords alike. Dirk Iserlohe is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of DHI Dorint Hospitality & Innovation GmbH in Cologne and member of the Management Board of its parent company Honestis AG.

Wiesbaden. The re-start in Germany demanded a lot from the hotel companies internally: federal regulations and repeated VAT adjustments are simply nothing but bureaucratic annoyances. The additional expense for the sake of hygiene is also enormous. Nonetheless, very few companies are willing or able not to factor in all this. This is why it is time for creativity and thriftiness. The executives of Success Hotel Group, Bierwirth & Kluth, SV Group, H-Hotels, Motel One, Deutsche Hospitality and Vienna House are responding.

Willingen. What do guests who spend their holidays in Corona times want? This question is currently a major concern for the hotel industry, especially since leisure tourists are currently the most travel-happy target group and are the last lifeline for many hotels. A German hotel group has launched its own survey on this issue, which has met with a great response.

Geneva. On July 1, 2019, Martin Smura became CEO of the Kempinski luxury hotel group. Exactly one year later, Chief Financial Officer Michael Pracht left the company. The only progress the group made over the past few months were in its announcements. Some stumbling blocks result from corona, but not all of them.

London. A new global customer segment of travelers is emerging: 'Generation Clean'. A study reveals that the majority of those surveyed are starting to prospect new types of business accounts and traveler segments, and they are confident in the recovery of primary markets by Q4.

Munich. No, the midsummer business has not been cancelled for Susanne Andersson Pripp. "Because in Sweden, it is a family celebration and most people stay at home anyway," says the owner of the Best Western Hotell Ett and Best Western Hotel Gamla Teatern in Oestersund, a city with a population 50,000, located in the middle of Sweden. Apart from that, everything else these two hotels normally live off has been cancelled or is non-existent. Despite all good intentions, the Swedish special path has come to a dead end. The industry is suffering and has now become one of the late starters in the European market.

Vienna. The EU is critical of vouchers as a "means of payment" in tourism, whereas the Austrian Hotel Association took a massive and proactive approach to the issue in May. It even set up it own website for this very purpose. Vouchers are intended to strengthen the liquidity of hotels. One study analysed three different scenarios.