News & Stories

Páfos. "It's almost like it was before the banking crisis," the owners of the Cypriot Thanos Hotels stressed at a press conference in Munich. On the Mediterranean island, people have moved closer together and are supporting the local economy. Now the aim is to bring back sensitive European clients.

Vienna. In Austria, the biggest surprise seems to be the ordinary. When Changwei Sun, tour operator from Beijing, stood at the top of a summit in Carinthia and was told by a mountain guide of the Alpe-Adria-Trail, which leads to Slovenia, that all waters glistening in the sun are portable, for instance! For the far-travelled guest, this is one of Austria's qualities. Clear water, pure air, and food and beverages: as soon as guests from distant countries finally arrive in Austria, they are enthusiastic about the simple things. However, Austria's promoters encourage the tourism industry to be more active and offer these simple things in bite-sized pieces that go with the times.

Frankfurt/M. Like the economy as a whole, the German business travel market saw more cautious growth last year than in 2011. Pre-crisis levels have, however, almost been achieved.

Istanbul/Prague/Deggendorf. Tear gas in Istanbul, tears in the flood-affected regions of Central Europe: a traveller describes his brief experience in Istanbul, as well as the help provided by Turkish and German hoteliers.

Madrid. 2013 is being a challenging year for the Spanish economy. The country is facing its 6th year of economic downturn, and although there are some signs that could lead to consider that the recovery has started, these are still very weak and in any event hide underneath the second highest unemployment rate of the European Union. The Spanish real estate market is for sure one of the most important victims of this economic crisis, worsened by the lack of financing which impedes the flow of transactions. In today's guest article, Carlos Bardavío, Counsel at the Real Estate Madrid office of Hogan Lovells International reflects legal changes in the Spanish real estate financing and asks if this may boost hotel investments?

Dubai/Istanbul. Dubai is now counting 20 million tourists in the year, Istanbul more than 10 million. According to a current MasterCard survey, the Turkish metropolis is leaving other cities like Dubai, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Milan, Rome, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Los Angeles behind. This year, the whole of Turkey has contributed 33 million tourists. Already today, the passengers immigrating from the air to the glittering city of the United Arab Emirates are dispatched in relatively short time and are said to utilise only a brief 20 seconds for the formalities in future. In the Turkish metropolis, immigrants can stand in a queue for hours at Customs. Dubai guides the traffic infarct directly and successfully while in the meantime, Istanbul is suffocating in chaos. Emirate Airlines and Turkish Airlines belong among the big "Movers" of the winds. In Istanbul, there have been battles on Taksim Square for one week and ultimately, a reaction to the Islam twist by the Turkish government. But, the young, rather European-stamped Istanbul Turks do not want this. Much of it touches the tourism.

Atlanta. Conventional wisdom says that high-end resort hotels should be particularly vulnerable to economic recessions because of the discretionary nature of the expenditure. A review of upper-tier resort performance during the recent Great Recession found that these properties did suffer more than the average U.S. hotel in 2008 and 2009.

Amsterdam. Like Paris, London, Barcelona or Rome, Amsterdam is a key european destination for local and international tourists, as well as for business and convention travellers. With 11.3 million visitors welcomed in 2011, the Dutch capital finds great interest from Germans, Belgians, British, French, Americans… along with newcomers from the BRICS countries, especially from China and India. Conscious that a lack of available hotel rooms presented an obstacle to further growth of local economy and eager to propose a better offer in term of quality and diversity, the city of Amsterdam took actions in 2007 by launching an ambitious hotel development program which aims to add 9,000 new hotel rooms to the inventory by 2015. Two years now from the finish line and despite the economical turmoil, the capital keeps the path and should achieve 95% of it.

Vienna. 25hours is now also drawing the crowds in Vienna. 2,000 people were invited to the opening of the boutique hotel for a "circus" spectacle. The former student halls of residence, built in the 1970s, is now one of the most trendy hotels in the city. Yet breaking the rigid hotel mould requires quite a different attitude in other matters too. Christoph Hoffmann, CEO of The 25hours Hotel Company and one of four shareholders, and Fanny Holzer-Luschnig, Director of the 25hours Vienna Museumsquartier, explain their unconventional approach in an interview with Fred Fettner.

Frankfurt/M. Germany continues to grow as a European business destination, even on a higher level than the rest of Europe. At this week's MICE trade show IMEX in Frankfurt, the "Meeting- & EventBarometer 2013" revealed plenty of new facts and figures. International demand for meetings in Germany is increasing all the time. Data from IPK International and the World Travel Monitor show that the number of business trips from within Europe to conventions and conferences held in Germany increased by almost a quarter during 2012, to a total of 3.3 million. Visits to these meetings now account for 26 per cent of total business travel revenue from European travellers coming to Germany, up from 24 per cent in 2011. Germany's trade fairs and exhibitions are also making their presence felt; in 2012 they prompted around 2.6 million trips to Germany from within Europe, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.2 per cent. European business travellers made 6.3 million traditional business trips to Germany, three per cent more than in the previous year.