News & Stories

Munich. FTI, the German tour operator, better known for cheap travels so far, will issue two luxury catalogues including 5 and 6-star hotels for the first time and will launch the new "Gold by FTI" brand. FTI managed to acquire 244 hotels for the premiere, and almost all luxury hotel groups are joining in. With this step, FTI attacks established quality tour operators like airtours and Dertour deluxe.

Bad Mitterndorf. A Thomas Cook hotel group turns its attention to Austria. The hope is that the two new Aldiana Clubs, one in Styria and one in Carinthia, will contribute to single-digit sales growth in 2010. Aldiana's love of the new club with thermal bath in Bad Mitterndorf in Styria has, however, been sweetened with the biggest subsidy ever granted up to now. In 2005, Aldiana Club was sold by Thomas Cook to the Spanish Grupo Santa Cazorla.

Munich. Trade fairs affect the hotel industry in a special way. Fairs increase the hotel-occupancy rates. Among the German trade fair cities Duesseldorf benefits most, according to a brand-new study also pleading for expo sites in the smaller cities - seen from an economic perspective. Smaller cities benefit most from additional jobs.

Singapore. At the opening of the 2009 ITB Asia in Singapore this Wednesday, Asia's travel industry is optimistically showing that the lowest point of the global recession has been passed and that the tourism industry can expect positive growth figures in 2010.

Munich. As generally expected, this year’s Expo Real, the 12th International Commercial Property Exposition, showed a decline in attendance of around 15% to 21,000 visitors from 73 countries. In addition to the visitors, the exhibiting companies brought 14,750 representatives to the trade fair. Expo Real 2009 thus hosted over 35,000 participants.

Hanover. The new summer catalogues for 2010 which have been on the market since yesterday are also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Robinson Clubs. Following the motto "time for emotions", the anniversary's slogan confidentially says: "I love Robinson". Here is some news on this matter.

Frankfurt. An online survey among the visitors of the sixth "Business Travel Show", which took place from September 30 to October 1, 2009, in Duesseldorf, turned up interesting results about what business travellers really want. The main desire is that hotels offer good service. The trade fair itself focused mainly on the issue of saving money.

Moscow. In terms of hotel development in Europe, Russia is king, according to the June 2009 Smith Travel Research Global Construction Pipeline Report. Moscow has the largest number of rooms in the continent's total active pipeline: 5,127 of the total 94,695, which includes projects from the planning stages to those under construction. Russia also is one of the countries seeing the most development, said STR vice president of content management Duane Vinson. "I don't think the global recession has impacted Russia as much as its own internal issues have, so we've continued to see a lot of development in that country," Vinson said in a statement. Nevertheless, new properties are reset in new contexts, one group has initiated bankruptcy procedure for tax reasons but also new groups come up. The Ukraine belongs to the prospering marktes and big plans are announced. But about 85% of the announced projects will not be realized, experts say.

Palma de Mallorca. The Spanish RIU Hotels chain wants to expand more strongly in Turkey. To achieve this goal, RIU has formed a long-term strategic alliance with a local hotel group. Yesterday, RIU also announced its first city hotel for 2010.

Side. TUI managers shine with pride when they talk of the new Sensimar brand. Last weekend, Sensimar was officially "born" - with the opening of the Sensimar Side Resort & Spa in Side in Turkey. In total, three Sensimar hotels are in operation with the hotel in Side as the flagship. With this "special, emotional product", hotel makers of the German travel giant appeal, as they put it, to the "best of the best of TUI's customers": TUI's affluent older clientele who only travel in pairs and prefer to remain among their own - among other Germans. TUI's strategy concentrates on exactly that - on the typically German. Whether the company will be able to deliver the traditionally high German quality standards remains unclear. After all, TUI wants nothing to do with operations. Sensimar is built on a franchise model and remains silent in the discussion as to quality standards.