News & Stories
Emden. The Upstalsboom Group, which specialises in holiday hotels and apartments on the German coasts, has founded its own tour operator. With this, it wants to market not only its own rooms and apartments but also external units to travel agencies from next year.
Beijing. China continues to cut itself off from international tourism and the hotel industry. Although the number of international flights is slowly increasing again, also to Europe, the situation is different for hotel investments: There will be no more new projects in China in the future. At the same time, Chinese investors are withdrawing from Europe. What remains are small Chinese clans in cities like Amsterdam. An update.
Paris/Doha. Accor is finding more and more enjoyment in organising accommodation for mega sporting events: Around 120,000 rooms are available in Doha during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 67,000 of which are managed by Europe's largest hotel chain - and it will ensure that these homes and apartmens are also returned to the housing market after the end of the World Cup. Accor has recruited and trained 14,000 employees for this. An unusual task, which Sarah Douag talked about in depth with Marc Decrozaille, Chief Operating Officer India Middle East & Africa at Accor.
Doha. From Sunday, there will be many premieres in Doha and even more discussions. The small country of Qatar is expecting a million football fans. How will the Muslim state handle the crowd? No one is already allowed into the country without a ticket, an app is used for control. 130,000 hotel rooms are ready; until now, rates were capped, now they are skyrocketing. So far, a lot of criticism has accompanied the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Sarah Douag summarises the facts and pain points.
Palma de Mallorca. After the super summer of 2022, Spanish destinations are expecting guests with tighter budgets and a newly awakened desire for all-inclusive. They fight staffing challenges. German tour operators and others are confident that bookings will not drop dramatically. FTI, TUI, Grupotel, Arabella Hospitality, Barceló and cycling tour professional Huerzeler have set the course accordingly for the 2023 summer season in Spain.
Madrid. Reaching the last days of the summer season, which in southern Europe usually extends to the end of October, Exceltur, the Spanish Tourism Association, is now able to confirm that if hotels in the country have increased their sales and revenues during peak season, they unfortunately lost in margins. Limited in their actions to increase prices, they fell short as they also assumed the increase in costs of living.
Rimini. Despite any crisis: In Italy, the first three quarters of 2022 show a substantial recovery not only of holiday destinations, but even of urban locations and corporate hotels. There are new sources of capital for new hotel projects. Investors now tend more to involve local operators with international experience. What is missing is the support of Italian banks. 2022 could still be a record year for transactions.
Vienna. While Austria's tourism industry fears the approaching winter despite late-summer temperatures, the guests are acting quite the opposite. Especially Germans are excited about the approaching white winter. For the industry, this optimistic forecast comes at the best time. However, skiing is developing even more into a sport for high-income people.
Berlin. Many major destinations are returning to Berlin for ITB 2023. More than 70% of the exhibition space has been booked, according to the trade fair company. Apart from that, details are changing. Among other things, networking for all is being pushed, e.g. through spontaneously bookable business lounges.
Merano. 70 percent of guests in South Tyrol book online today, 20 percent directly via the hotel website. It is also noteworthy that guests' preferred travel time is shifting from summer to spring or autumn. "The season" is expanding. And guests are among those with spending power.