News & Stories

Vienna. While Austria's large festivals can prove their economic importance with the millions from the value-added chain, pop festivals and a series of rural events often fill the beds, without anyone paying them a thank you or the millions in revenue being made public. Also this summer, nearly all of Austria is covered by cultural events of varying magnitude.

Berlin. The end of the alliance of Gold Inn AG and Dormero Hotels: their ways will separate on July 31, 2013. Insiders report "a big bang behind the scenes" between the well-known Woehrl entrepreneurial family and its partner Aleksej Leunov. At first, this was not to be made public but then a unilateral company announcement was made last Monday.

Vienna/Munich. "We generate gigantic volumes of data every microsecond: in house, in the network, in store. Raw material or waste? A journey to the mines and refineries of the data era." The teaser on the cover of "GDI Impuls" describes what Big Data is. The Swiss Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute dedicated its first magazine of the year to this topic. Because "Big Data" will change our lives and ideas in future. The Munich-based CRM, software and data specialist Michael Toedt breaks the issue down for the hospitality sector - and challenges management to raise the profile of the marketing manager and to link data in a sensible way. He also sings the praises of the good old questionnaire.

Munich. After ibis and Pullman, now it's Mercure's turn to rebrand: Accor is now cleaning up its midscale hotels. The move may improve the profile of this pool of non-standardised hotels. However, Volkmar Pfaff, Senior Vice President Mercure Central Europe, estimates that ten percent of the current franchise partners will not or cannot move forward with this new concept. As well as the redesign of lobby and services, the core message is: Mercure is moving away from the functional value-for-money midscale concept and has been caught up in the "emotion wave". In order to gain enough experience with the new concept, Accor is also prepared to grow with hotels it itself operates. Otherwise, franchise will continue to set the pace.

Munich. A new "White Label" supplier from New York is pressing onto the European market. They offer sales support to premium hotels.

Vienna. Austria Trend Hotels would like to expand, but only at a qualitative level. Therefore, they are newly arranging their properties into service categories, giving the breakfast a bio-character and providing for a good mood with the "Good Morning Master".

Lausanne. "Love is all you need" to create a luxury brand experience, according to Jean-Claude Biver, the keynote speaker kicking off the "Luxury Hospitality 2013" conference in Lausanne. Biver, who is chairman of Hublot, a Swiss luxury watchmaker, now wholly owned by LVMH, didn't have in mind a 1960's-style love-in, but was emphasising the need for passion and devotion to the task of creating luxury products. Nevertheless, it would be reasonable to assume that Biver's numerous accomplishments as a leading figure in the revival of the Swiss watch industry were also attributable to some hard-nosed elbowing … The underlying theme of the various presentations during the conference is that luxury in the hotel business is moving away from the stiff, formal traditions of bygone eras and is more emphasising the liberation of guests to allow them to dress and behave as they wish, pursuing their own specific interests. The lifestyle change makes new companies rising in the market and offering sophisticating products – absolutely competitive to the luxury hotel industry.

Bethesda. Marriott Hotels, the signature brand of Marriott International this week launched a new multi-year global marketing campaign called "Travel Brilliantly" which will also engage young travelers.

Berlin. "With the present school holiday regulation, the Ministers of Education and Arts are giving away revenue opportunities running into the billions," the Deutsche Tourismusverband e.V. criticized the German bureaucracy a few days ago. They presented a study on the implications.

Doha. "It all starts with a good property deal," said Christopher R. J. Knable, who has been the new Chief Operating Officer of Katara Hospitality in Doha, Qatar, since April 2013. Prior to this, the hotelier and developer worked for Kingdom Hotel Investments, overlooking the investment goals on behalf of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin AbdulAziz Alsaud. Katara's CEO, Hamad A. Al Mulla, can therefore be sure that Knable speaks the same hotel language. The new second in line at the top of Qatar's former national hotel company recently announced that the company was thinking about a new brand as well as a relaunch.