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Hotels in Europe Suffer From Low Bookings
Recently, the European Travel Commission (ETC) published its quarterly report “European Tourism: Trends and Prospects”. This document once again proved that the tourism sector was hit by the pandemic like no other industry in Europe. Moreover, the uncertainty regarding recovery makes it even harder for hotels to plan their business. Experts foresee that bookings in 2020 will be as much as 54% lower than last year.
This is particularly important for Europe where many people work in tourism. To stimulate the market, countries across Europe try to open their borders early so that hotels in Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon hotels, as well as hotels in less-visited destinations can utilize the summer holiday season. That being said, it is now clear that destinations will recover at a different pace depending on their major source markets. Destinations popular with domestic tourists will recover faster than those that mostly benefit from international guests.
According to the report, the consequences of the health crisis will be noticeable until 2023. The occupancy and revenues of hotels in Europe are likely to remain below the 2019 level in the next two years. In January-April 2020, the decline in international arrivals in Europe was 44% compared to the same period of 2019. If the situation persists, between 14.2 million and 29.5 million people who work in tourism in Europe might lose their jobs.
Hotels in Nicosia and the rest of Cyprus, as well as Croatia and Zagreb hotels, had the highest decline in guests in April and May 2020, -78% and -86% respectively. Iceland, on its turn, also suffered from a drop of 52% in international arrivals. However, the country’s health system was efficient in controlling the spread of the virus, and so Reykjavik hotels are now open again and wait for international guests.
Hotels bookings in January-May 2020 were 96.9% below the result of 2019. However, there are some signs of recovery as flight and hotel bookings have been growing recently. Such destinations as Spain, Portugal, and Greece are the most popular choice. Leisure tourists are responsible for the majority of new bookings. In the coming months, short-haul and domestic travel are likely to show the biggest growth. In this regard, such countries as Norway, Germany, and Romania have a bigger chance to recover quickly. On the other hand, countries like Iceland, Croatia, and Montenegro that depend on long-haul travelers might find it harder to recover.
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