News & Stories

London. Hotels in the British capital are doing well, but they could have done better. A recent report explains that the Rugby World Cup currently playing in the UK is a booster, but that the euro's weakness, Airbnb and lookalike businesses are pressurizing occupancy and RevPar. Midscale hotels are suffering most.

Munich. Smartphones, tablets and the like are constant companions on the road. Mobile devices can check in or check out their owners and increasingly often, they are able to open the room for them. Some of these mobile trends indeed improve the travel experience, but as a recent survey clearly shows, even business travellers wish to be personally addressed at their hotel.

Munich. With the introduction of a hotel umbrella brand, the FTI tour operator has now declared hotels as a strategic growth field. "Labranda" is starting with 24 properties. With this, Dietmar Gunz, Group Managing Director with FTI, wants to increase business volume in the upscale resorts.

Amsterdam. Will terrorism win over tourism? This summer, trends show how tourist flows avoided the African coast of the Mediterranean. While Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt and even Morocco struggled to attract visitors, destinations such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and even Greece reported record numbers.

Shanghai. Shanghai counts sixty luxury hotels today, though only a few of these compete on an international level. That at least is the view of Rainer Stampfer, who for the last four years has been General Manager of the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai Pudong. However, the growing hotel offering in the luxury sector is set for more arrivals, his colleague Rainer J. Buerkle, General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton Pudong says. In 2016, the world's biggest Disneyland will open and send a new signal: Shanghai is no longer to be a mere financial centre, but also an attractive tourist destination. Baerbel Schwertfeger visited China and today throws the spotlight on Shanghai with these two senior managers.

Barcelona. Because Barcelona's new mayor Ada Colau doesn't want her city to turn into Venice, a place where locals have been pushed out by tourists, she has decided to put the tourism industry on hold. All hotels developments are frozen for one year resulting in huge delivery delays and 15 to 20% higher costs per room to be expected in the next 3 years.

Frankfurt. Achieving above-average growth rates, Germany's major cities and metropolitan regions maintain their leading position regarding incoming tourism. Particularly the city states attract international tourists.

Paris. This year, once again, the Tour de France brought the world's attention to the country. 4,000 hours of beautiful images of the destination were broadcasted on TV in 190 countries. Hotel occupancy increased everywhere the "caravane" stopped, increasing the RevPar by double digits. Sports events will promote France even more in 2016.

Munich. Fast WiFi is the most important amenity when booking business travel, reveals a first "Business and Technology Travel Study" carried out in Germany, France and UK. Smartphones and laptops make travelling a productive time. Business and leisure travel is blurring.

Frankfurt/Berlin. The business travel market only accepts offers of the share economy reluctantly. Proof of this is found in the current edition of the VDR "Business Travel Report 2015" for Germany. The hotel industry achieves record figures.