News & Stories
Barcelona. The Spanish city's urban development from 2017 has been replaced by new rules trying to allow controlled hotel growth and securing the residents' rights to access their homes in the city center. Barcelona's hotel industry shows understanding.
Bern. Hospitalisation and occupancy of intensive care beds in Switzerland is easing, yet the Swiss Federal Council is extending the 2G+ measures until the end of March and the quarantine obligation until the end of February. Now several rules apply in one property.
Rome/Madrid/Brussels/Amsterdam/Paris. This Christmas and winter season is worse than 2020. The frustration of hoteliers as well as industry associations in Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands is growing. Everyone sees one thing: politics reacts overnight, with rigorous surprises, ever-changing rules and little will to react appropriately. The fear of Omicron, in fact, increases the actionism. Our correspondents report.
Berlin/Vienna/Bern. The turn of the year has not led to the hoped-for Corona relief in the DACH region, but to further restrictions and more chaos. The industry is sounding the alarm and has now definitely reached the limit. Politicians are only marginally listening to them.
Rome. On Wednesday, the Italian government issued a new regulation that complicates entry: all travellers, including vaccinated ones, must also show a negative test. Non-vaccinated persons must be quarantined. This massively increases the worries for the industry.
Vienna. The governing people say that this was not an easy decision. Likewise, their decision was not easy for the hotel industry and gastronomy, and that goes for consumers as well. Now, they all have to follow highly diverse, regional regulations, which all follow one rule in the end: economic interests come before health interests. Vienna remains closed the longest – until December 20, despite the lowest infection rate in the entire country. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, new, stricter measures are emerging because of the situation in intensive care units.
Paris. France is the one country in Europe recovering faster than others, according to WTTC. How? Well, having the President's ear and the full power of a government who believes in tourism certainly helps. Following a 38-billion-euro pandemic aid fund, President Macron recently announced a 5-pillar recovery plan. It’s bold, ambitious, people-oriented, sustainable and digital.
Frankfurt. The event industry is generally confident that meetings & events with personal attendance will already increase strongly in the coming year. But there are differences between the continents, in Europe optimism still leaves much to be desired, and overall, the industry will probably lose ground in the long run.
Salzburg. The Austrians are working with unrestrained optimism on securing winter tourism. This time, everything has to work out. The country is spending 10 million euros on a marketing campaign in order to bring skiers from neighbouring countries to its slopes. Nearly all hotel guests are vaccinated and do not suffer much from the mandatory measures still in place. Tested people will be stopped at the turnstile of the lifts every two days the latest.
Vienna. Austria plans an energetic comeback of winter sports with the so-called 3G rule. However, all problems remain for the mountain cable cars to solve. How can 3G be controlled there? How can tests be controlled? Even IT is unable to help here. And yet, the demand for winter holidays is already higher than in the year 2019. Practice beats theory.