News & Stories

Milan. Thermal spas are part of Italy's important flagships. This segment is the only one, which recorded a decreasing occupancy rate in the boom year of 2016. Meanwhile, the visitors of thermal destinations are becoming younger. Are these the signs of a promising change? In the background, a discussion about the future marketing of thermal spas has begun. Some want to focus on medicine, others wish to emphasis relaxation. EU directives have been noticed but not implemented intensively. Italian experts are discussing what was answered north of the Alps a long time ago: there, thermal spas and destinations offer a light wellbeing version as well as the medicinal variant.

Barcelona. Only two months after Santander Bank was hired by Barceló to study a possible merger with NH Hotels, the latter confirmed it had received a letter of interest a few days ago. Barceló Hotels is officially eyeing a takeover of its competitor for an estimated amount of 2.480 billion euros. NH remains cautious and has three months to make up its mind.

Wiesbaden/Cork. Rich Indians are increasingly celebrating their ostentatious weddings in Europe. Thanks to Bollywood, Switzerland is benefiting most from this trend. But Vienna's imperial backdrop is also increasingly attracting status-conscious romantics from the Far East, who are prepared to spend millions for perfection in kitsch. An Indian wedding is comprised of two separate celebrations, 1,000 guests are not unusual and celebrations can last for days. This can often mean that several hotels are booked out simultaneously for one week at a time. A young wedding portal based in Ireland is now organising the boom online: Similar to an OTA, it brings together hotels and bridal couples for the most beautiful day of their lives – and organises everything for the event, Facebook services included.

Nuremberg. Germany retakes the top ranking in the latest Anholt-GfK "Nation Brands Index" study. The result is based on six criteria, in tourism Germany is – not yet – among the best countries.

Madrid/Beijing. Chinese giant HNA faces liquidity issues. Actual owner of a quarter of Hilton Worldwide Holdings and majority shareholder of NH Hotels, the firm is selling a piece of its Spanish assets. Analysts predict and even recommend selling it all out.

London/Berlin. Of course, there was no reaction towards hospitalityInside.com from Meininger Hotels in Berlin and its parent company, Holidaybreak, in London with respect to the accusations issued by German media saying that both companies had hidden millions of euros from the tax authorities. The hostel group is part of a global scandal uncovered by the so-called "Paradise Papers".

Riyadh. Billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed has been arrested in Saudi Arabia over allegations of corruption and illegal activity. Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding Company holds shares in Citigroup, Twitter, Apple, Four Seasons, AccorHotels, Moevenpick, Rotana, etc.…His arrest led to an 11% drop of KHC value at the stock exchange and over the weekend, Alwaleed lost 2 billion dollars.

Munich. It is an unusual joint venture: Ruby Hotels partners with an advertising agency group in the field of co-working spaces. A lifestyle hotel teams up with a European-wide agency. The first joint project will be developed in Hamburg. With this approach, Ruby's CEO Michael Struck sees a way to develop attractive locations with larger and more diversified land utilization. Investors have already identified co-working spaces as a high-yield segment – and as a bridge between hotel, office, living and trade. Today, JLL published an up-to-date study about co-working spaces with Hamburg as an exemplary market.

London/Paris. Whether luxury or budget, hotel groups are trying to reach their guests via all channels – especially social media – with emotional videos, pictures and stories. Belmond Hotels make use of nostalgia, B&B Hotels of its mascot. Romantik Hotels, as consortium of privately managed upscale hotels, has initiated such an emotion-led campaign throughout Europe for the first time.

Brussels. Alongside Terror and Migration, Tourism is the third key subject on which the European Parliament plans to focus. Euro billions are to used to create five million additional jobs. On the "World Tourism Day" on 27 September 2017, the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, invited tourism professionals, lobbyists and the media to a "high-level conference" at the EU Parliament. It sounded as if the EU plans to flood tourism with money.