News & Stories

Prague. Prague is for some a little too picture postcard perfect. The city of a hundred spires can be a wide-eyed wonder on the one hand and is a Disneyesque cliché on the other. Without doubt however Prague is a font of architectural heritage that seems to have no limit. From Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, Neo-Renaissance, Rococo and Baroque to more modernist Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Cubism and functionalist modernism.  Within this world hotel developers have to work hard to find sites and then comply with the strict local planning regulations to keep within the city’s UNESCO listing as a World Heritage Site. A look at four new hotels in Prague: The Augustine, the Buddha Bar Hotel, the Kempinski Hybernská and the Sheraton Prague.

Prague. Without question Prague is suffering along with the international hotel community as the worldwide recession takes grip. And whatever the various economic indicators say with regard to the crisis bottoming out and confidence returning, the fact is that unemployment is set to continue to rise well into 2010. This will continue to impact both businesses looking to further reduce costs and leisure travellers being more carful with the use of their discretionary spending power on short or long holidays.

Tripolis/Lausanne. In a few short years, Libya has gone from being labelled a ‘pariah state’ to being tipped as the next ‘hot’ tourist destination. Indeed, Libya, along with Algeria, was named as a country to watch at the World Travel Market in 2007. There is no doubt that the destination offers some unique features to tourists, including an extensive undeveloped Mediterranean seacoast, spectacular ruins and archaeological sites, as well as vast expanses of desert. Nevertheless, business travel driven by the country’s energy sector has been the mainstay of the country’s inbound tourism. Libya currently has 2,864 hotel rooms of international standard in the pipeline, all of which should have entered the market by early 2011.

Frankfurt. At the shareholder meeting of the Aldiana GmbH, Peter Wennel was elected Chairman of the Managing Board. In future, he is also responsible for Paradise Hotels, whose company has been integrated in Aldiana, too.

Frankfurt. Around one half of all companies in Germany plan just as many business trips for 2009 as for 2008. In fact, every tenth company expects the frequency of their business trips to increase. One the other hand, around one third of companies will reduce the number of trips made. And the hotels too will feel the effects.

Portorož. With two new hotels on the Slovenian and Croatian Adriatic coast, Kempinski Hotels & Resort has broken new ground in Europe. Kempinski opened the Palace Portorož on the Slovenian coast and spa town of Portorož in October of last year. The almost 100 year old grand hotel has been painstakingly renovated and extended. Occupancy is, however, still low with most guests coming from neighbouring Italy. On the other side of the bay, almost in view, the Kempinski Hotel Adriatic will open on 1st August after repeated delays. The hotel will offer the first 18-hole championship golf course in Istria. In the background though, GMs are struggling against incomplete infrastructure, lack of facilities and pending court proceedings.

Jeddah. The increase in religious tourism continues to drive the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's real estate growth. Pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Makkah and Medina are expected to reach 8 million by next year according to recent Saudi government figures.

Viersen. Attracting short-trip holiday makers to the German-Dutch border is the goal of the "Cool Breaks" tourism project. The European Union just approved its funding.

Vienna. Tyrol's hotel industry should not lose its competitiveness and be prepared to invest three billion Euros in the future, Manfred Furtner, Tyrol Chairman in the Austrian Hotelier Association made a projection. An OEHV survey of Austrians and Germans on their travel planning gives business in the Germany-dependent Austrian states cause for concern.

Frankfurt. Green living and environmental awareness - last year these were a mere fringe topics. This year, however, the three day MICE trade fair event taking place in Frankfurt placed the topic of environment squarely in focus.  One chain presented its first global programme in this area. From the event news, here are a few more examples of how trends can be set in the MICE business. This year, the fair was attended by almost 9,000 visitors, among these, over 3,700 hosted buyers. The 3,500 companies exhibiting at the trade fair came from 157 countries - a new record.