The 2006 Stern report concluded that, "the scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change presents very serious global risks, and it demands an urgent global response". The business community must also consider these risks and determine its response, and the tourism industry is likely to be impacted more than most.
The extraordinary run of revpar growth enjoyed by London’s chain hotels slowed in July, according to the latest HotStats survey from TRI Hospitality Consulting.
NEW YORK, PricewaterhouseCoopers research and data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the US Department of Labor and Smith Travel Research show that although there was a small decrease reported in the first quarter of 2007, customer satisfaction levels in the lodging industry are at positive record levels with a recent high index value of 75 in 2006. This high level of customer satisfaction comes even as the lodging industry has reduced the number of employees per available and occupied room and while many other industries, especially tourism-related, have experienced declines.
TVC Holdings Pays For Some Quality And A Bit Of Comfort | TVC Holdings has made its first investment since flotation on both the AIM and the IEX last month. The investment holding company led a consortium that included private clients of the stockbroker Davy in acquiring seven Quality hotels and four Comfort Inn properties (a combined total of more than 1,400 rooms) from Kasterlee for €41.5 million, a figure which rises to €46.5 million when development capital of €3 million and fees are added. Kasterlee trades under the name Choice Hotels Ireland. Pat McCann was another in the consortium and the former chief executive of Jurys Doyle Hotel Group will fulfil the same role with Dalata, the company that is to be set up to operate the hotels, all of which are in the Republic of Ireland. Mr McCann noted that the new company would be looking to extend its reach into the UK within the next two years.
Half year results from the HotelBenchmark™ Survey by Deloitte show that the hotel market in Asia Pacific is seeing much stronger growth this year than last. Room revenue per available room (revPAR) across the region is up 14.1% to US$97 – outperforming the 9.4% growth achieved in 2006. Improvements have been driven by double-digit increases in average room rates, which now stand at US$137.
Traffic Distribution Analysis | Visit Duration Analysis: 37.75% of all visits to the online 'Travel' industry went to the top 10 websites for the month of July, 2007. 47.30% went to the top 20 websites and 68.60% went to the top 100 websites. The average visit duration for visits to the online 'Travel' industry was 8 minutes, 56 seconds for the month of July, 2007. This is a minimal increase from last months average visit duration of 8 minutes, 36 seconds.
Morgan Makes Move For Motel One | Morgan Stanley Real Estate (MSRE) has made its first investment in the budget hotel sector in Europe. A special occasion, then, and appropriately enough MSRE’s Special Situations Fund III was called into action to pay an undisclosed sum for a 35% stake in the holding company Motel One Management. The subject of the fund’s acquisition controls the properties and operations of the chain Motel One, which has 17 hotels (2,300 rooms) in its native Germany. Working with Motel One AG (which retains the remaining 65% in Motel One Management), MSRE will help to grow the chain in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Host Muscles Its Way Into Brussels | “When shall we three meet again?” might Host Hotels & Resorts have enquired of its joint venture familiars Stichting Pensioenfonds, the Dutch pension fund, and GIC Real Estate. “In England, Italy or in Spain?” No, in none of these, where the joint venture already possesses the likes of the Sheraton Skyline Hotel & Conference Center, The Westin Palace, Milan and the Hotel Arts, in Barcelona, but instead upon the Brabant plain – in Brussels. The joint venture joined hands and closed in on the 262-room Renaissance Brussels Hotel, the 218-room Brussels Marriott Hotel and the 57-unit Marriott Executive Apartments Brussels, European Quarter. The purchase price was not revealed, although in conjunction with the acquisition the joint venture closed on a €70.5 million mortgage loan maturing in 2014 that has an interest rate of under 5.65%.
Spreading over 3m square kilometres, India rises in the snowy peaks of Kashmir in the north, and falls to the tropical shores of Kerala’s southern tip. In the west the barren rocky deserts of Rajasthan provide an arid, hostile environment, while in Bengal to the east lush jungles create a haven for wildlife. India’s size and diversity is matched by very few countries. Dotted across this vast and breathtaking countryside are huge metropolises, swelling secondary cities and many thriving regional centres, over 40 cities with populations 1m strong, all with their own particular industries and economies. But despite India’s huge scale, contrasting regions and scattered cities, one thing does link this spectacular country, growth.
All eyes were on London last weekend, as the UK’s capital played host to a glittering showcase of global events. With iconic landmarks, world class facilities and a truly international feel, the city is ideally positioned for holding major events. So from 6-8 July 2007 London showed off its attractions to the world as it held three of the largest events of the year: the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium, the tennis finals at Wimbledon and, for the first time in its 104-year history, the Tour de France. Using results from Daily HotelBenchmark™ by Deloitte, we can see how these events affected hotel performance.
Traffic Distribution Analysis38.40% of all visits to the online 'Travel' industry went to the top 10 websites for the month of June, 2007. 48.00% went to the top 20 websites and 69.72% went to the top 100 websites.
Blackstone Making It Happen At Hilton | The fireworks began popping on the day before the fourth of July; and the one particular rocket that made hospitality folk everywhere go “ooh” was the news that Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC) is to be bought by The Blackstone Group. The US private equity firm is to pay US$47.5 for each share in HHC; the deal is thus valued at around US$26 billion. The all-cash transaction, which is subject to shareholder approval and the satisfaction of all other necessary conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. Blackstone, which already owns more than 100,000 hotel rooms in the USA and Europe, plans to invest additional monies in HHC’s hotels and brands; HHC has more than 450,000 rooms in more than 2,800 hotels worldwide.
Invesco Real Estate Buys Five European Hotels | Invesco Real Estate has bought for one of its funds five hotels in two separate transactions for which it paid a total of €120 million. Four of the hotels were bought from Azure Group: the 180-room Park Inn Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, the 164-room Holiday Inn Wroclaw, the 143-room Holiday Inn Gdansk and the 146-room Innside Premium Hotel in the Niederrad business district of Frankfurt. The two Holiday Inns were leased back to Azure. The fifth hotel, the 152-room Sofitel Nice Centre (now the NH Nice), was acquired in a separate deal. HVS’s London office acted as valuers to the hotel fund.
A focus on room rates by chain hotels in the UK during April has caused occupancy to drop, according to the latest HotStats survey from TRI Hospitality Consulting. The month of April 2007 saw occupancy in London dip below 80 per cent, hitting 79.7 per cent, compared to the same month a year earlier when it was 81.8 per cent.
Meridia Capital Partners Closes Its First Fund | Meridia Capital Partners, a private equity group based in the Spanish city of Barcelona, has closed its first fund, Meridia Capital Hospitality I. The fund has €150 million to spend on the acquisition or development of luxury hotels in Europe, Turkey, Morocco, India, the Caribbean and Latin America. Around 70% of the money in the fund comes from Spanish investors; the fund can be leveraged to invest more than €500 million.
Hilton Targets Russia And The UK | Russia is familiar from its past with the term “five-year plan” and heard it uttered again this week, though this time by an American. Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC) has given itself five years in which to build, with the help of London & Regional Properties, at least 25 hotels in Russian cities. The properties, each of which will be managed by HHC, will take a range of brands; the first hotel to open (in the second quarter of 2008) is scheduled to be a 186-room Doubletree by Hilton that London & Regional is building in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk...
HVS Hospitality Services, a global hospitality consulting firm, in conjunction with New York University’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management, recently completed the 2007 Manhattan Hotel Market Overview.
With the city of Athens recently playing host to the prestigious UEFA Champions League Final, we use the latest data from Daily HotelBenchmark™ by Deloitte, to analyze the impact of this major event of the city’s hotel industry.
The 55-and-older crowd isn't about to spend retirement tending the garden. A February 2007 Hitwise study found that slightly more women than men visit online travel sites, and that nearly a quarter of visitors are ages 55 and older. The age distribution is worth noting because lifestyle trends are altering the types of trips people take and the way they plan and book travel. Those 55 and older will increase substantially as a percentage of the population during the next 10 years. Yet Web-based resources tailored specifically for that group have been lacking.
Several Nickels To Be Put Into Nickelodeon Resorts By Marriott | Marriott International, the children’s cable television channel Nickelodeon and real estate firm Miller Global Properties are teaming up to present the world with Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott. The first property in a chain that could have 20 links in it by 2020 is scheduled to be built in the US city of San Diego; the 650-room resort has a provisional opening date of early 2010. Miller Global will seed an investment fund that will provide an initial US$300 million for work on a brand that is designed to appeal primarily to families with children.