News & Stories

Seefeld. Countries of the Global South experienced an increase in German tourists in 2017. More than one in five outbound holidaymakers travelled to a developing or emerging country. North Africa experienced a particularly strong upswing, and the decline in trips to Turkey led to changes in the visitor structure.

Dubai. As reported, Dubai is meanwhile struggling against massive overcapacity in the hotel market and is now threatening to drown in its own flood of brands. More and more hotel groups are now beginning to react, giving new brands and new hotels a much sharper profile. Two weeks ago, top dog Jumeirah Hotel presented its new brand Zabeel House and the even snappier Zabeel MINI House in Dubai – products for affordable lifestyle. With the new Emerald Palace on Palm Jumeirah, Kempinski Hotels sits at the absolute high-end. Its owner has created a copy of the Palace of Versailles: a palace of gold, marble and star-crowned F&B dreams. Both groups aim to set themselves apart from Dubai's veritable flood of brands and to escape Dubai's downturn, expected from all sides following the Expo 2020.

Minneapolis/Frankfurt. For almost a third of all business travellers worldwide, hotel loyalty rewards are among the most important selection criteria for accommodation. However, security aspects remain important, whereby the fear of intruders into the room is great.

Montaione/Hanover. It's no secret that Castelfalfi was by no means an automatic success. Now the recent article of a German magazine casts further shadows on the entire project and reports about complaints from angry investors and unfulfillable obligations.

Berlin. The holiday home providers are satisfied with the 2017 financial year, with average sales growth of 13 percent and bookings up ten percent. The fact that the quality of the holiday houses and apartments rises continuously, is positive.

Bucharest. Although Romania remains one of the poorest countries in Europe, its economy is booming, having expanded at a rate of 7% in 2017. There will be some slowdown in 2018 and 2019, but the International Monetary Fund still sees respectable growth of 5.1% and 3.5% for those two years. In any case, Romania is ripe for hotel development and the major chains are moving in. Indeed, the country offers hotel developers the attractive combination of rising demand and lack of updated modern lodging capacity.

Berlin. 35% of business travellers are, by their own estimation, more productive when travelling than at their desks in the office. Younger travellers are especially productive when on the move. No WiFi in flight and long queues at airports are the only annoyance.

Hanover. TUI CEO Fritz Joussen is planning to strengthen and further expand momentum within the Group by redefining responsibilities on the Executive Board. These measures include the bundling of the Group's global tour operation business and airlines as well as the merger of all hotel activities.

Vienna. Alm villages and chalets are shooting up across Austria. Neither of these have anything to do with traditional Swiss chalets or aristocratic villas, above all because they are conceived right from the very start as mega complexes. Real estate and construction firms are piling in, also from Germany. Competition is growing with the pure hotels, even if some hoteliers are building chalets themselves as supplement. The overnight figures from commercial holiday properties, which are often also second homes, increased over the past winter, up by more than 17% – more than twice as big as rise as for other forms of accommodation in Austria.

Villach. Overtourism not only evokes understanding, but also criticism. At the "Tourism Forum" within the framework of the European Tolerance talks in Carinthia, the Head of Carinthia Tourism, Christian Kresse, asked with some annoyance: What does overtourism have to do with us today?