News & Stories

Neuchâtel. The Swiss hotel industry recorded a total of 16.8 million overnight stays in the first half-year of 2016. This translates to a fall of 1.2% compared to the equivalent year-ago period. These are the preliminary findings by the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics.

Vienna. In the first three months of the summer season 2016, around 3.7% more guest overnight stays were recorded in Austria. The Germans remained faithful and took advantage of many attractive offers, but: Holiday apartments saw better booking figures than hotels.

Eschborn. The figures disprove the impression: The amount of bleisure has remained the same for the past five years. But more women than men and younger travelers are looking for the opportunity to combine business as leisure trips.

Paris. France is suffering. Recent reports confirm a significant drop in foreign visitors. Paris and the surrounding region are suffering most. They face a 750-million-euro loss in revenue for the first trimester only. Challenging is also the fact that important source markets like Japan and Russia are clearly avoiding France.

Milan. The first estimates of Italy's tourist high season draw a brilliant picture of the country’s travel market. More Italians travelled again, more stayed in their home country meeting more tourists that are international. And all of them spent more money.

London. Tour Operator Thomas signed a strategic hotel sourcing partnership with Webjet Limited, an Australia based leading online digital travel services provider.

Delhi/Geneva. Of all major emerging economies, India currently has the best growth prospects, as the other BRICS, including Brazil, Russia and China, as well as South Africa, are all facing major economic problems or slowing growth. India's GDP growth rate is exceeding China's which stimulates the general sentiment also in the hotel sector. The Indian hotel market is clearly not over-supplied. Nevertheless, there are a lot of properties under stress followed by a renewed interest in acquiring hotel assets. The hotel sector remains highly fragmented despite international hotel chain activity is picking up.

Augsburg. The lust for leisure is rising everywhere: More leisure time, greater willingness to spend and consume - the well-off among the younger generation are triggering a boom in holidays, entertainment and leisure. In the holiday industry, a "bottleneck" is currently accelerating the run on resorts: Many holidaymakers are choosing to holiday in their home country or in safe neighbouring countries on account of current geopolitical turbulence. This has given rise to an unprecedented balancing act, in particular in Germany. After all, not only does changeable weather stand in the way of this trend - but even worse - the unwillingness of banks and investors to invest in resorts. This was the line until today at least. Now though, the aversion to investment in resorts is beginning to crumble, thanks to successful existing concepts, new trendy ideas, a sober use of floor space and banks with confidence.

Madrid. More than half the growth in Spanish tourism is demand "borrowed" from the Mediterranean. The Spanish Confederation of Hotels, Cehat and Exceltur, a group of 23 leading tourism companies are optimistic about the results of the summer 2016, though the tourism lobby is worried. Average daily spending is declining.

Oberursel. Specialised in guests from the German-speaking countries, the Aldiana holiday club operator is facing difficult tasks. Three of its ten clubs are located in the weak markets of Tunisia and Turkey. In addition, a fire broke out at the highly successful Club Alcaidesa in Spain a few weeks ago resulting in the guests having to be preemptively evacuated. Thanks to a new investor, the two Managing Directors, Max-Peter Droll and Philipp Schmidt, share an optimistic view on the future. But they lack a concrete strategy they can unfold to the public.