News & Stories

Berlin. TUI will in future focus strongly on its own brand TUI Blue, which is to be expanded to 120 hotels over the near term. Hotels operating under two former TUI brands will be incorporated into TUI Blue from 2020, taking the brand to around 100 hotels in one fell swoop. After that, the focus of expansion will be on long-haul markets, but there are also negotiations in Europe for further projects.

Sofia. A small but nice city with a good hospitality offer. This is Plovdiv from the perspective of Italian operators. Still, the city is not fully prepared to take advantage of the Year of the "European Capital of Culture". Promotional activities are lagging, while the destination suffers from the lack of cooperation among its main stakeholders. The city even claims to be the oldest continually inhabited European town, with more than 6,000 years of history. Officially, the ECOC Year includes more than 300 projects and nearly 500 events. But reality is bitter.

Munich. "We have arrived at Travel Charme,” Dr Christian Hirmer says, Co-Shareholder at Hirmer Group, based in Munich. As of January 2018, the successful German resort hotel group has been owned by the German-wide specialist for men's fashion. Hotel real estate was already part of its diversified corporate empire, now though, Hirmer will also assume operating business. After the first year, initial synergies and changes for the resort brand are beginning to become clear. The brand will in future show its new face in the former noble spa location Bad Gastein, Austria where Hirmer will bring back to life a dilapidated hotel ensemble – and so also the location itself.

Matera. The year of Matera as the European Capital of Culture has just begun under the motto "Open Future". The programme of the Italian UNESCO heritage destination, that shares its 2019 ECOC title with the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, has a special focus on social and cultural inclusion and collaborative innovation: both considered as founding elements of the Europe of tomorrow. In Matera, the City of Stones, alternative accommodation has become strong. But the local Federalberghi President is convinced of benefiting from the title. At the same time, EU statistics among cities awarded the title in the past show an extreme range of effects on the destinations.

Athens. The Hellenic hospitality industry keeps on following the path it commenced in 2017 and closed another very positive year. All KPIs increased significantly, occupancy drove up room rates. Tour operators are the most dominant hotel room providers but local chains are catching up.

London. The average rate performance of Lisbon's hotels increased significantly over the past four years, driven by international visitors. As a result, Lisbon, one of the oldest cities in Europe, was the fastest-growing market in 2017 and 2018 in terms of value, according to the HVS European Hotel Valuation Index. Future investments are expected.

Vienna. The exchangeability of concepts has also begun among holiday hotels. This is reflected in the definition of the "Alpine Lifestyle". Thomas Reisenzahn, Managing Director of the Prodinger Tourismus consulting company in Vienna, has worked with hoteliers and experts on a study analysing 150 hotels. According to the study, 40% of alpine mountain hotels were just freeloaders.

New York, Rockville. The direct online booking of conferences and groups is a technological challenge on which all hotel chains and MICE providers are working at full speed. Now American Express Global Business Travel and Choice presented their new solutions for smaller events.

London. It is still uncertain, if the Brexit will come and how it will take place, but British nationalists expect that the Brexit will lead to economic success – without any serious empiric analyses. In reality, the British tourism industry already feels the first negative impacts of the Brexit discussion, and this includes the investment as well as the operator perspective. Or not? Which market observation predominates? How do hospitality businesses see, experience and feel the current situation? Otus, CBRE, Christie & Co, Cedar Capital Partners, the industry association UKHospitality, IHG, Hilton and the Oetker Collection answered our snap poll.

Zurich. The Helvetian hotel industry has overcome the "vale of tears", which lasted several years: More visitors are coming back to Switzerland – as well as more hotel chains, which have started their expansion to Switzerland or are accelerating it. They are all hoping for a high occupancy rate at good room rates, as well as investors. However, it is becoming obvious that many investors are financing properties and concepts "blindly" in Switzerland – as already apparent in Germany. They like to block out the consequences of a massively increasing room offer as well as the high operational costs in Switzerland. A summary of the development.