News & Stories

Dubai. Dubai has been brought back down to reality, for the second time. After the global crash in 2008, the shining city and indeed the region is now being buffeted by the oil crisis, a dollar peg and global turbulence. A first impression from the Arabian Travel Market and from the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference.

Berlin/Hanover. The bidding battle over the TUI affiliate Hotelbeds is over. The sales to the investment company Cinven and a Canadian pension and investment company was finalized yesterday, April 28, in Berlin.

Bangkok. In the Soneva Kiri Resort in Thailand, Sonu Shivdasani, the founder of Six Senses, has further perfected his concept of intelligent luxury - with a luxury hotel in the form of private residences. On the island of Koh Kood, which still has very little conventional tourist infrastructure, the guest sleeps in a villa in the middle of the jungle, eats in the treetops or simply enjoys the magnificent virgin beach. Here, luxury is lived on plots of between 2,000 and 3,000 square metres. Yet so much privacy can also be purchased - for between USD 1.3 million and USD 15 million. One thing isn't for sale though: the unique Soneva lifestyle practised here. A lesson in luxury.

Alexandria. China's business travel market has overtaken the United States as the number one business travel market in the world in terms of in total business travel spending.

Madrid. This is the time to invest in historical Spanish buildings. International investors have shown a 25% percent higher interest in historical Spanish buildings since the beginning of the economic crisis in Spain. 40% of the investors want to convert them into hotels although official support has decreased or even disappeared, and the fiscal framework could be improved.

Saint-Vincent. "Make everybody pay taxes, not just the usual suspects". There is no topic dearer to Bernabò Bocca then the fight against illegal accommodation activities and the so-called "shadow economy": "Just think about how much money you could collect, if only you managed to ask everyone's due, instead of putting us through the mill with bed taxes", remarked the freshly confirmed President of the largest Italian hotelier association to politicians two weeks ago at the Federalberghi's general assembly in Saint-Vincent. Bocca touched as usual on all the hot topics close to the hearts of hoteliers: the shadow economy, the jungle of national and local levies, the never-ending web issue as well as the new industry challenges brought to Europe by the terrorist threat. Yet the atmosphere was euphoric.

Paris. New excitement in France: UEFA Events SA, organizer of the EURO 2016, which will be hosted by 10 cities in France this summer, has chosen HomeAway as a national sponsor and as the official fan accommodation service. Unions protest as HomeAway is obviously not forced to collect taxes as opposed to hotels.

Frankfurt/M. The German event market will continue to grow – although the pace of growth has clearly slowed down. Moreover, against the backdrop of the recent social developments experts expect rather moderate future growth while budgets will grow significantly faster. The German meetings industry is still growing with a total of 393 million participants attending events held in the country last year – an increase of 2.6% from the previous year. Germany's popularity as a meeting and events destination is increasing, particularly on an international level. The number of international visitors rose significantly last year by 8.3% to 27.7 million and the number of international visitors travelling to events has almost doubled in ten years. These are the results of the "Meeting- & EventBarometer 2016".

Vienna. After the February figures were revealed, several institutions slammed on the brakes regarding Austria's winter tourism. Last but not least due to the VAT increase to 13 percent on May 1.

Paris. With more than 84 million foreign visitors, France managed to remain the first destination in the world in 2015. Despite last November's tragic terrorist attacks which killed over 130 people and injured dozens, the country still holds the much disputed title that China, the US and Spain are also going after.