News & Stories

Brussels. Belgium's hospitality sector is doing better. Hotels are recovering from the 2016 terrorist attacks. Just like Paris, Brussels shows a certain resilience. Efforts made by the government to support the industry have helped to increase the number of visitors. International tourists are back, alongside international investors who, on their part, have cleared away 9 out of 10 of Belgium's hospitality assets recently put on the market. Nevertheless, the overall situation is less cheerful than one thinks. The overall hotel landscape is also changing: Within 5 years, Belgium has lost 570 mostly smaller hotels.

London/Hanover. TUI Group announces a very good fiscal year. Hotel and cruise companies played a big part in it, revenues per guest grew pleasantly and the business shall be…

Paris. France's hotel inventory is on the decline. A recent study published by the French group In Extenso TCH confirms that 450 hotels closed their doors in 2016 resulting in the disappearance of 8,400 hotel rooms. The terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice are part of the reason why investors seem less keen to invest in a sector which is still in the recovery phase, along with the high cost of land, compliance to regulations, high seasonality, etc. …

Rome. Agenzia del Demanio, the Italian state property office, has just launched its second bid regarding the "Valore Paese – Cammini e Percorsi" project: an initiative intended to promote slow tourism through the transformation of unused properties.

Brussels. In July 2018, the amendments to the EU Package Travel Directive will enter into force. At present, the intensity and speed with which those affected are looking at the changes differs significantly. In Germany, the focus has been clearly on travel agents and the amendments have been quickly implemented into German law. In Austria, on the other hand, the response has been slower. Though now – in contrast to the Germans – they have already come up with a solution for dealing with those cases where the tour operator goes bankrupt.

Chur/Vienna. "Incredible, but true! Skiing in Switzerland is in some cases cheaper than in Austria" is the finding of an investigation of ski-pass prices which compared destinations in Switzerland with their Austrian rivals. According to the outcome of the investigation, prices differ little. But in many ways, the comparison falls short.

Barcelona. The hospitality company Hotusa is moving its headquarters from Barcelona to Madrid – like 2,500 other companies did due to Catalonia's plans to separate from Spain.

Vienna. Europe's hotel industry is growing across the board, but Eastern Europe in particular provides impetus. "The motor is a healthy mix of high occupancy and high revenue per available room, above all in Central and Eastern Europe", Thomas Emanuel summarised, Director Business Development of STR, speaking last week in Vienna at the 10th IHIDCF. He presented current performance figures, supplemented by investment and transaction benchmarks from Simon Kronberger, Senior Consultant at Christie & Co in Vienna. An overview.

Munich. Ten castles in 30 hours: This was the start of the theme journey for the creators of the new 25hours hotel in Munich. Yesterday and today, The Royal Bavarian celebrated and is still celebrating glittering opening parties at the former "Royal Bavarian Telegraph Central Station". A funny and charming splash of colour in the "ambivalent world" of the central station, as CEO Christoph Hoffmann put it.

Rome. Not everybody is interested in Venice, Milan, Florence or Rome. Operators and investors are focusing everywhere along the peninsula, including destinations such as Naples and the Amalfi Coast, as well as entire regions like Apulia, Sicily and Sardinia. A growing trend well supported by Italy's positive tourism performance and nice financial basics. On the other side of the coin, criticalities remain more or less the same: a certain degree of market opacity and local rules that are never the same in any destination.