News & Stories

Hamburg. After only 16 months, the Club Aldiana in Bad Griesbach in the Bavarian Forest is set to close. A legal battle with Hartl Resorts is already making its way through the courts. On a group level, Thomas Cook has positive news: It has bought 100 percent of the tour operator Oeger Tours specialised in Turkey.

Hoernum/Sylt. A "fish factory" is what the locals are calling the sharp, wooden-panelled building located on the fringes of Hoernum harbour on the German isle of Sylt. Others complain that they are only let as far as the reception in the hotel. For the Budersand Hotel - Golf & Spa on Germany's most popular holiday island, Sylt, the second summer season has begun, and many new guests will feel: First impressions from outside are deceptive. The 79-room hotel between the dunes and tideland gives the guest a feeling of homeliness, indulgence, transparency and space. With 60 million EUR for hotel and 18-hole golf course, the project is one of the most expensive single hotel investments in German-speaking Europe.

Rome. Italy offers enormous potential to investors and operators alike: the hotel market is fragmented and has a huge accumulation of necessary renovations, mainly in the middle-class segment. However, investors are almost only interested in luxury hotels and the banks are reluctant. At the same time, Italy has got everything a tourist destination needs: history, art and culture as well as mountains, lakes and the ocean, sunshine and excellent cuisine. In 2009, 43.2 million international tourists came to Italy. In doing so, Italy is one of the most visited countries in the world – after France, the US, Spain and China, but ahead of Great Britain, Turkey and Germany.

Johannesburg. South Africa's tourism experts present positive figures at the end of the Football World Cup 2010. The Wold Cup was an entire success for them. Nonetheless, many new hotels will have to struggle with low occupancy figures.

Frankfurt/Berlin. For eleven years, the German National Tourist Board has been carrying out international and national marketing for Germany. Domestic marketing will be cut from 2012, as the federal states’ ministers of economic affairs are short of money and prefer keeping it for themselves. German tourism threatens to fall back into the stone age of marketing. In contrast, Europe is expanding its marketing efforts.

Munich. The hotel market is moving forward again. Following the economic downturn, the first signs of recovery are now in evidence, and new constellations are emerging in the market. Experts at the "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" at Expo Real 2010 will be revealing just what the new attractive markets, concepts and locations look like. This will be the ninth meeting so far of insiders in the international hospitality sector; it takes place on Monday, 4 October 2010 at Europe's leading real estate fair in Munich. Last year, about 1,000 visitors attended the hotel conference.

Frankfurt. The "Business Travel Show", a leading German trade fair for business travels, will be staged in spring in future. The introduction of Europe's biggest hosted buyer programme for the business travel market has also been announced.

Vienna/Zagreb. Every tenth categorised bed in Croatia belongs to the Valamar group. The group emerged from privatised hotels. Camping included, the conglomerate, which is controlled by EPIC funds from Austria, is able to host up to 39,000 people in 40 objects at the same time. So far, the property and managing company have been connected strongly. As strategic enlargement, Valamar wants to take over the management for other hotels now.

Frankfurt. On this early summer day, Karl Schattmeier nearly beams as brightly as the June sun. The Chairman of the Managing Board of the Sentido hotel group reveals the reason. "Including the two Nile ships, we are now the second largest hotel group of the Thomas Cook Group with 26 hotels; we are a heavyweight with more than 100,000 guests in the 2010 summer season," says Schattmeier happily. About one year after the official market introduction in the 2009 summer season, he self-contentedly took stock last week in Frankfurt for the first time. Sentido and Sensimar, the competitive brand of TUI, are becoming more and more alike. Therefore, the question arises whether the market needs such brands or not.

Wiesbaden. The once euphoric expectations of the exclusive German tour operators with respect to the Football World Cup in South Africa were in vain. The crisis and safety have influenced booking figures. Last-minute business is running at a satisfactory level now. The biggest hope for the country concerning tourism is positive reports about the games. Three German tour operators have been authorized by the FIFA. They report on their experiences with booking. Special offers round about the biggest football event of the year have been piling up in the last minute as well.