Travel intelligence provider Mabrian conducted a Europe hotel price analysis of 20 destinations. It found European hotel rates are on the rise across most categories and destinations, eclipsing inflation. In general terms, Barcelona, Brussels, and Rome are the destinations with the highest increase in hotel rates. These ranged from 30% to 33% on average. Meanwhile, Ljubljana, Madrid, and Tirana saw the lowest Europe hotel price increases. Mabrian also notes that Barcelona is the city where prices have increased the most compared to Easter 2022, with a 43% increase for three-star hotels. In four-star hotels, the highest price growth is in Brussels, with a 34% increase. Mabrian cites Zagreb, Warsaw, and Tirana as the most competitively priced destinations for all three categories of hotels over Easter. Carlos Cendra, Director of Marketing & Sales at Mabrian, said: "While hotel prices are rising sharply, we must look at this rise in the context of inflation” “In addition, we have to account for the increase in staff operating costs.” “All this is combined with a strong demand for travel, which pushes prices up."

 

• Budapest, Lisbon and Warsaw lead the list of capitals by rate of recovery of air connectivity with China

  Mabrian, a leading tourism intelligence company, has presented a new study based on air connectivity data from flights connecting the world's main cities with China. This analysis takes place after three years of closed borders for China due to the pandemic. Finally the Asian giant has now lifted restrictions on travel to Europe and the United States – and many of the world's main capitals are working to recover one of the most coveted tourist source markets.   In this analysis, Mabrian has analyzed data updated on 23rd of January of the flight schedules for 2023 that connect European destinations with China via direct routes.   One of the main conclusions drawn by the study is that the recovery of flights will be gradual and that given the recent opening of China, most of the destinations analyzed are still below the pre-pandemic volumes of 2019. But this is not the case for every destination, since there are three destinations that stand out for their prompt reactivation and that already exceed the number of flights in the pre-pandemic period: Budapest, Lisbon and Warsaw. Respectively, these three capitals have increased their air connectivity with China by 138%, 107% and 6% for this year compared to 2019.   At the next level down when it comes to recovering connectivity, the study places Athens, Minsk, Frankfurt, Munich, Khabarovsk, Brussels, Copenhagen and London, still with 38% below 2019 in the case of Athens, and between 50% and 63% of less flights scheduled than 2019 for the rest.   In the last group of European capitals that to date have reactivated their capacity the least from China, Mabrian discovers that they are some of the most traditionally visited European capitals such as Rome, Paris and Madrid. These four cities have volumes between 72% and 90% less than in the pre-pandemic period. An explanation for this might be the large volume of flights that they registered in 2019, and that thus they may take a while to recover.   From Mabrian they emphasize that the recovery of the Chinese market will be gradual despite the high demand of its citizens to visit other countries. The reactivation of air connections is key in this process and it will require some time for airlines to reschedule and redistribute their capacity to respond to demand.   As Carlos Cendra, Mabrian's Director of Marketing and Sales explains, "in order to be competitive and recover the Chinese market more quickly, it is key to closely follow the evolution of connectivity, to know the possible change in the interests and preferences of travelers after the pandemic and benchmark competing destinations. For this, it is key to work hand in hand with tourism intelligence to be able to make better decisions regarding planning for this year”.

 

• Mexico and Colombia lead the destinations with the highest growth in air capacity to travel to the Spanish capital in 2023

  Mabrian, a leading tourist intelligence company, has analyzed for the FITUR travel trade fair – which is being held this week in Madrid – the growth of the main source markets that will travel the most to Madrid this 2023.   The study, carried out using real-time data on air capacity, shows how Latin America has enormous growth in demand this year to visit Spain’s capital. In fact, Mexico and Colombia top the list of international destinations that have increased their air capacity to travel to Madrid. In the case of Mexico, the growth  of air capacity to Madrid is 32.72% higher when compared to 2019 and 42.05% highger compared to last. For its part, Colombia has increased air capacity by 23.35% compared to 2019 and 34.96% when compared to 2022.   The other countries that have increased their air capacity to Madrid are, in descending order: Portugal, the United States, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Switzerland. In the case of the United States, interest grew by 33.84% compared to last year (you can read more about the profile of Americans traveling to Spain here in this recent Mabrian analysis), but decreased when compared to 2019. In the case of Switzerland, interest decreased compared to 2019 and is recovering compared to last year.   Countries that will visit Madrid the most in 2023 by ranking     In addition to the data on growth in air capacity, the origin destinations that will visit Madrid the most, in order, will be: the Spainish domestic market to Madrid, followed by Italy, France, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Mexico, Colombia and Swizterland.   In this ranking there are changes compared to 2019, when the United Kingdom was in fourth place followed by Germany, and Mexico was in last place. Thus, in 2019, the destinations that visited Madrid the most were: Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Portugal, Switzerland, Colombia and Mexico.

  When it comes to climate change the travel industry needs to change its approach to ‘summer holidays’ if it doesn’t want to get caught out in the cold   ‘Winter is coming’ is the Stark family’s moto in Game of Thrones and in the travel industry this might be the case when it comes to ‘summer holidays’ due to climate change.   This year saw heat records broken in most of the main European summer tourism destinations, in some cases by quite significant margins, and climate experts are predicting that many places popular with tourists soon will be scorching hot every summer.   What does this mean for a tourism industry largely based around summer peak season visitors? Could winter become the new summer or will tourists start visiting new destinations where the climate is more bearable? We spoke with six experts to find out more.   Carlos Cendra, Sales and Marketing Director at travel intelligence provider Mabrian says: “If anyone thinks that hotter weather is good news for beach traditional beach destinations then they should think again. During this summer’s heat wave in Europe we saw a clear drop in visitor satisfaction levels during the hottest weeks. The weather is one of the most important contextual factors for the tourism industry. Hundreds of vacational destinations in the Mediterranean and North Africa have traditionally based their tourism development on  favorable weather conditions. Now this is changing, and faster than we thought. This is probably going to change global travel trends within the next years, so we’d better analyze the effects of this on the expectations and preferences of travellers.”   Matthew Chapman, CTO of travel booking technology provider Vibe comments: “Online travel agents and other digital points of sale for travel should consider adding a filter that lets people search by average temperatures for the dates they are looking. Likewise hotels, experiences providers, perhaps even airlines and airports should all start considering populating their content with information about air conditioning, shaded areas, and so on – and make that content searchable and filterable in the booking process. More and more people will be concerned by such details at the search and booking stage.”   Alex Barros,  Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer from Beonprice, the revenue management & total profitabilty platform  for  for the hospitality sector, adds: “From a revenue management perspective for hoteliers this is a potentially enormous change as pricing for leisure travel has all been defined by the same summer peak season approach since the beginning of mass tourism in the 1960s. More research will be needed around how temperatures impact consumer demand. What is the ideal temperature for maximum pricing? Is it impacted by temporary volatility in temperatures, or just long-term averages? All of this will of course impact how hoteliers approach building and opening new properties too, not just location but temperature-controlled buildings and communal areas.”   Fabián Gonzalez, Co-Founder of Forward_MAD, a luxury tourism event taking place in Madrid from 5^th to 7^th October, says: “Luxury hotels and resorts, and luxury experiences generally, are better positioned to adapt to the challenges of climate change as they have the  resources to invest in what is needed – better climate controlled buildings, air conditioned transfers, and so on – and have more demanding clients in terms of sustainability expectations, who are prepared to pay for this. Contrast that with mass-market tourism providers with low-margins where such costs would be the difference between profit and loss. Additionally a shift towards tourists spreading their holidays out throughout the whole year, adapting to ‘wintering’ rather than ‘summering’, could suit many boutique and smaller luxury hotels with only a limited number of rooms – allowing them to fill them up in the normally quieter months. Not least as high spending travellers normally are more flexible in terms of vacation dates anyway.”    Bruno Martins, Senior Product Manager from the global hospitality technology provider Shiji Group comments: “Hotels and resorts in hotter locations will have to re-think their outdoor relaxation areas, perhaps putting an end to ‘outside’ pools or at the very least placing some kind of cover over the top – and making them more nighttime friendly too, including lifeguard services, or perhaps even charging for peak hours. Equally the spa centres should be rethought, positioning them more as a place to go and cool down – with less saunas and more ice baths. Golf courses are a popular draw for hot locations and they too will be impacted, quite heavily in fact as you can’t cover a whole golf course with screens and more watering will be required at a time when water becomes more scarce. Again nighttime, or at least early morning, tee-offs will be in greater demand. Technology is going to be the golden-thread throughout all of these changes, whether that be via apps that allow guests to schedule better those precious cool moments, pricing software that maximizes revenues based on temperature, or electronic wrist bands that allow guests access (or not!) to certain locations at certain times based on demand. Basically hotels can already start optimizing revenue for the activities based on time of day, where demand will increase and improve revenue management of rates.”   Janis Dzenis, Director of PR for the recently launched flight price comparison website WayAway also says: “For many US travellers going to Europe, summer is still all about the Mediterranean region and that might take a long while to change no matter how hot it becomes. Especially keeping in mind that for many US visitors to Europe this is a one-off, special trip – they aren’t basing their choice on previous experiences, but on what they saw in a movie or a friend told them. Any reality will take time to filter through. However in the short term all this recent hot weather around the world is driving eco-consciousness amongst travellers. So they´ll want to know what destinations and hotels are doing to fight this and those that don’t have a convincing answer will gradually lose out. This will also drive more demand for travellers to offset their carbon footprint too and this is a service we offer to our WayAway Plus subscribers, one that is proving very popular.”

 

• Data from travel intelligence provider Mabrian shows correlation between exchange rate and search demand from US source market
• Mastercard confirms that American travellers in Spain spend twice the amount other European travellers do
• Luxury tourism event Forward_MAD calls this a ‘gift not to be missed’ for hoteliers concerned about the post-September outlook
• Polling from US metasearch company WayAway shows that almost half of Americans now more keener to travel to Europe as a result of parity
• Revenue management experts Beonprice provides hoteliers with tips on how to market themselves

  Carlos Cendra Cruz, Sales & Marketing Director of travel intelligence provider Mabrian comments:   “We have had a close look at the relationship between the Euro/Dollar exchange rate and the level of search demand for flights from the US to Europe over the course of this year.   “Whilst you might expect to see greater demand for Europe as the summer months approach, we can nonetheless see a very clear correlation between the value of the Euro and demand for travel – with clear periods where an increase in the cost of acquiring a Euro results in a fall in demand for flights to Europe, and vice versa.   “Aside from telling us that right now European hotels should be marketing themselves hard to US travellers, very clearly this shows us that hotels and tourism boards around the world should factor in – amongst other important elements too – exchange rates when considering where to focus their marketing funds.   “But we shouldn’t forget though that this cuts both ways and no one should become over reliant on any one market where a sudden shift in exchange rates – or as this research shows even a relatively small shift – can result in massive decreases in demand.”   Paloma Real, general manager of Mastercard Spain comments:   "Before the pandemic, the United States was one of the most important source markets for the Spanish tourism sector in terms of both the number of visitors (3.2 million in 2019) and spending (€6,774 million). Tourists from North America have an average expenditure twice as high as that of European tourists (2,087 euros on average vs. 1,175 euros for German tourists, 1,115 euros for UK tourists or 763 euros for French tourists). This is mainly due to the fact that, when travelling by long-haul, tourists from North America usually spend more days in the destination and travel on a larger budget than Europeans entering our country by road and/or shorter-haul flights.   "Due to the pandemic, the US-Spain corridor has been one of the destinations most affected by the restrictions, and the number of visitors has dropped significantly (1 million visitors in 2021). With the end of the restrictions and the fall of the euro against the dollar, it is expected that in 2022 the number of visitors and spending will be close to those of 2019. The euro-dollar peg is expected to be a lever to accelerate the recovery of visitors to the country and average visitor spending.   "Our latest travel trends study published in June "Travel 2022: Trends & Transitions" anticipates a global shift in travel and consumption habits. Spending on experiences (activities, restaurants, bars and leisure) has already recovered to 2019 levels and, for the first time in history, has surpassed spending on shopping. Tourists are increasingly looking for unique and, if possible, personalised experiences that allow them to enjoy the trip rather than buying souvenirs and products that they can easily purchase from home.   "On the other hand, we see this trend confirmed by the fact that more and more tourist destinations are relying on Mastercard to develop special experiences and promote them to source markets through our priceless.com platform. As a result, they are accelerating the recovery of the tourism sector in their destinations.”   Fabián Gonzalez, Founder of Forward_MAD, a luxury tourism conference taking place from October 5^th to 7^th in Madrid comments:   “Whilst occupation rates are high right now many hoteliers are already asking what will happen in September. After all they have two years of COVID debt behind them to make up for along with staff shortages, rising interest rates and inflationary worries too.   “For the luxury segment in particular the potential increase in demand from one of the biggest outbound source markets in the world really is a gift not to be missed. Not least as US travellers are dream guests: they spend more, stay longer, book further in advance, enjoy the room service – and at the end they tip properly.   “But how do you capture such travellers? They have their own travel agencies and preferences that not all European hoteliers can easily tap into. Both Mabrian and Mastercard – who have some very valuable insights on this particular trend – will be on stage at Forward_MAD from October 5^th to 7^th to discuss this and more.”   Polling of a statistically relevant sample of 250 American citizens late last week from WayAway, the United States price comparison website for cheap flights, showed that:  

• Almost half (49%) are now keener to travel to Europe than before as a result of the dollar to euro parity.
• The area where they felt they are most likely to benefit from this change is in shopping (63%) closely followed by dinning out (60%).

  Neville Isaac, Chief Customer Officer of hotel revenue management tool provider Beonprice comments:   “Post Covid we have seen a significant resurgence of visitors from the USA and now the parity between the dollar and the euro is the perfect moment to optimize the segment.   “Traditionally in Europe, the US visitor has the highest overall spend, a longer booking window, and length of stay than almost any other feeder market. Typically also, the data shows us that they book superior room types, so the overall contribution to profits from this segment is extremely high.    “Although we are seeing extremely high ADRs (average daily rates) this year across Europe (around 30% above 2019 levels), now with the euro/dollar parity hotels –  especially those cities with an international airport –  have a great opportunity to increase volume from the high value US market, where the exchange rates make these destinations attractive.   “In order to take advantage of this opportunity, we recommend that hotels study the data and consider:  

• From which US cities are they getting demand?
• How far in advance do their US customers typically book?
• Which channels are they using to buy?
• And finally which products (room types, rate types etc,) are the most popular?

  “With this information Revenue Managers can sit down with marketing and design campaigns to reach these markets.”

 

• Zagreb (Croatia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia) lead the ranking of cities with a higher degree of visitor satisfaction
• The large European capitals drop positions due to their high hotel prices and due to a low value placed by visitors on the tourist offer in the destinations
• The study analyzes air connectivity, the average hotel price, and the levels of satisfaction and perception of visitors

  Mabrian, a leading tourism intelligence company, has shared a new study of the best European cities based on the value for money they offered during the month of June this year.   For this new study air connectivity data was analyzed, looking at the number of seats on scheduled flights and the number of cities and countries with which the destination has a direct connection.   The average hotel price and the level of visitor satisfaction were also taken into account. This analysis of visitor satisfaction is part of the Mabrian indices that measure the level of satisfaction and perception that visitors have with destinations in general and regarding the most relevant  areas such as security, climate, accomodation and the tourism product offer.   Conclusions:  

• The destination that offered the best value for money during the month of June was Zagreb, located in northwestern Croatia. Despite being among the last in terms of air connectivity, it has a very high level of satisfaction in most of the areas analyzed. At the same time, it offers a very competitive accommodation price compared to the other destinations analyzed.
• In second position was Athens, which is better connected than Zagreb but with a slightly higher average price and lower satisfaction levels than Zagreb.
• Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is one of the destinations analyzed with the most competitive hotel prices and high levels of satisfaction. However, it remains in third position because its air connectivity is limited.
• Dubrovnik, also in Croatia, is the destination with the highest satisfaction levels among the analyzed destinations. However, the average hotel price is high and air connectivity is limited, which places it in ninth position.

  London and Paris, despite being better connected, are penalized by a very high average hotel price among the destinations analyzed. In addition, the two capitals showed lower levels of satisfaction. Visitors are particularly dissatisfied with the hotel service in London and with the offer of tourist products in Paris.   Other big tourist cities such as Berlin, Barcelona and Amsterdam are at the bottom of the list for their high hotel prices and for the level of satisfaction, which remains low. This last indicator may be due to the tourist saturation that they have had since the beginning of the summer, and also due to the delays and cancellations of flights that have been taking place lately.   In order, the best tourist cities for quality and price in June are: Zagreb (Croatia), Athens (Greece), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Rome (Italy), Vienna (Austria), Lisbon (Portugal), Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Berlin (Germany), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Paris (France), Barcelona (Spain) and London (United Kingdom).   By indices, the security perception index (PSI) analyzed by Mabrian is led by Dubrovnik and Lisbon, followed by Milan and Madrid. At the bottom of this index are Berlin, Barcelona and Vienna. The climate perception index (PCI), which allows knowing the relationship between the expectations of visitors and the reality of the climate in the destination, is also led by Dubrovnik, followed by Rome and Milan; whilst at the other end the final three are Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna. According to the index of satisfaction for hotels (HSI), the best scores are for the cities of Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Ljubljana, while London, Berlin and Amsterdam are at the bottomo of the ranking. Regarding the perception of the tourist product available, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana and Athens are at the top of the ranking, and at the bottom are Paris, Madrid and Barcelona.   According to Carlos Cendra, Mabrian's Director of Sales and Marketing, "there is a growing trend of demand for less crowded and more authentic destinations. For this reason, countries such as Croatia and Slovenia and their capitals are highly valued destinations due to their balance between a destination that offers security, a differentiated offer of activities and a very attractive average price. The most mature urban destinations are suffering a rebound effect in demand that generates an increase in average prices and a reduction of the customer experience due to the possible saturation at some times and places”.

 

• Incorporation of four people to enhance the company’s presence in different regions to offer solutions based on tourism intelligence.
• The team has grown by 20% since 2021, now forming a total of 27 people.
• Mabrian now has a multicultural team with 11 nationalities speaking 10 languages.

  Mabrian, the leading company in big data and tourism intelligence, has reinforced its business development team in recent months to accelerate its expansion in priority areas for the company such as Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, the Balkans, the Middle East and Latin America.   Mary Menchón, Chris Ramaciotti, Parisa Bakhtiari and Catalina Taltavull have joined the commercial team to bring tourism intelligence closer to the many different destinations and markets that want to promote better decision-making based on data and real-time information on trends, tourist satisfaction rates and other relevant indicators for them.   All of them have an international profile with experience in the tourism sector both in the field of tourism bodies and the hotel sector. The new joiners will be responsible for specific regions with a focus on interacting directly with the sector in each of their respective countries or regions to offer solutions based on tourism intelligence.   Mabrian’s current workforce has grown 20% in the last year and is more multicultural than ever. In total, it now has 27 people of 11 different nationalities, speaking 10 languages, distributed in 6 departments. The team is located between the offices in Menorca and Barcelona along with a current growing commitment to a hybrid work model, where face-to-face work coexists with remote work.   Santi Camps, Founder and CEO of Mabrian, celebrating that the team continues to grow to help Mabrian expand to more regions, reaching a total of 16 countries where the company currently has a presence, comments: “We want to officially welcome our new colleagues, who are now already part of the Mabrian family. The objective for all of us is clear: turn data and information into answers for our partners, enabling smarter decisions, whilst increasing the efficiency and sustainability of the sector”.  

• Chris Ramaciotti is the new Business Development Manager for Northern Europe. He has an international MBA and extensive experience in the luxury hotel sector. For Chris, “the technology developed by Mabrian is a central element when it comes to meeting the needs of a traveler since we accompany destinations and companies so that they can better understand their behavior and adapt their strategies”.
• While Parisa Bakhtiari is the new Business Development Manager for the Asia, the Middle East and Africa areas. A telecommunications engineer with a background in tourism, she has spent many years of her career focused on the travel industry. “I am passionate about exploring data in tourism, and with this passion I am dedicated to facilitating the incorporation of tourism intelligence in tourism policies and strategies, whilst helping the sector to take advantage of the opportunities of big data.”
• Mary Menchón is Mabrian’s Business Development Manager for Spain, Portugal and LATAM. Trained in tourism andcommunication, her work experience has focused on the tourism sector from different perspectives. “At Mabrian, a company that I have known since 2018, I know how to provide the vision of working and implementing the use of big data for DMO’s from scratch, since I myself experienced that process. For me, being able to help tourist destinations implement this tool and being able to continue contributing my part for the recovery of tourism is my greatest motivation”.
• And Catalina Taltavull is Mabrian’s new global public procurement coordinator. She has a mixed profile between aeronautical engineering, business development and extensive experience in the tourism and accommodation sector. Her functions at Mabrian are summed up in her own words: “We are facing the birth of a new service sector for tourism managers: Tourism Intelligence. The highly unstable context that the sector is facing makes administrations increasingly see the need to professionalize and have information to make better decisions. At Mabrian what we have is a solution developed and approved with more than five years of experience in the market, ready to provide an agile solution to the sector.”

  Mabrian has conducted a study of average hotel prices by room type for all the main Mediterranean destinations: overall prices are up on 2019, but not everywhere – and Greece is the big surprise, with increases up to 110% in five star rooms.   Carlos Cendra, Sales & Marketing Director at Mabrian comments:    “With few exceptions all the main Mediterranean destinations are seeing modest increases on average prices from 2019 across three, four and five star hotels.   “France is the main exception, with a 12% and 11.3% drop in prices for three and four star hotels respectively – but it’s worth pointing out that it is not all bad news, as its five star hotels are still the most expensive in the region at €419 per night (and up by 13.2% compared to 2019).   “Meanwhile Egypt’s prices are up strongly across all three categories, at 25%, 40.9% and 48.3%.  But Greece is the real star here, with four and five star hotels seeing a 62.7% and a 110% increase respectively.”  

  Travel intelligence provider Mabrian has analysed the impact of the Ryanair strikes later this week:  

• Ryanair's cabin crew striking across Europe puts at risk the journeys of almost 600,000 travellers flying from Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal in just three days, accounting for more than 3,000 flights.

 

• Within that Spain will be the most affected market, making up around 300,000 scheduled seats on over 1,500 flights, with Mallorca airport the most affected within Spain.

 

• Find attached two documents which outline further details: a breakdown airport-by-airport and a map.

  Carlos Cendra, Director of Sales & Marketing at Mabrian comments:   "Whilst in normal times some of those passengers might still travel via alternative means or rearrange for another date, this time it looks like many will have to give up their plans permanently due to other airlines such as easyJet cutting its schedule and also likely to have a strike soon, airport security delays across Europe, and a national rail strike in the UK.   “Every journey less is a shame for the European destinations expecting these visitors at a time when they are trying to make up for lost revenues in 2020 and 2021, facing higher staff costs and inflation all around.   “Once again we are facing a sudden and unexpected change in the market that means that destination management organizations and tourism businesses need accurate data and information to assess the risks and reduce their impact. Over the last few years the sector has faced a pandemic, a war and now a crisis of the workforce. I don’t think anyone any longer doubts the value of up-to-the-minute global data on tourism trends to help them make the right decisions in moments like these.”  

 

Mabrian analyzes the forecast for tourism this summer in the Balkans and south eastern Europe

 

• Analysis reviews data related to air connectivity, the recovery of capacity and hotel prices for the main destinations in the region.
• Assessment of the impact of the lack of Russian tourists in south eastern Europe and how each market is recovering after the pandemic.
• Inspirational demand for Montenegro, Greece and Croatia is maintained.

  Mabrian,  the leading provider of data analysis and tourism intelligence globally, has analyzed the tourism outlook for this summer in the Balkans and south eastern Europe. The analysis reveals several trends regarding the pre-pandemic era and the recovery since last year.   The analysis specifically looks at air capacity, taking the data from 2022 and comparing that with the data from the pre-pandemic summerof 2019. At the same time, hotel prices and inspirational searech demand are compared with  summer2021 to understand the path of the recovery of tourism in these destinations in south eastern Europe.   Overall pre-pandemic air capacity is slowly recovering. However  the level of recovery is very diverse across south eastern Europe and Mabrian identifies three groups of countries on this basis. The countries that are recovering the best are Greece and Romania. In the middle are Serbia and Croatia, whilst Montenegro, Bulgaria and Cyprus have a low level of recovery.   Meanwhile the price recovery has reached the hospitality sector, especially in 4-star hotels. For example Croatia, Greece and Bulgaria show an increase in prices in all types of hotel categories, while Cyprus is the only country on the list that shows a decrease in prices in 3, 4 and 5 star hotels.   It should be pointed out however that specifically in Cyprus in 2021 Russia was the third source market in terms of air capacity and the second in hotel reviews. The lack of Russian tourists for this summer has therefore caused a drop in hotel prices for this destination. The same issue can be highlighted in Serbia and Montenegro, since for these two markets Russia was also the fourth and third biggest issuing market, respectively. The absence of Russian guests could also affect the prices of luxury properties.  

 

Croatia, Montenegro, Greece: the most inspiring destinations in the region

  In terms of inspirational search demand, Croatia, Montenegro and Greece are at the top of Western European source markets when compared to other destinations in the region . However, apart from the United States and France for Greece, and Germany and France for Croatia, all other markets show a drop in inspirational search interest to these destinations compared to the same period in 2021 (according to the Mabrian share of searches  indicator).   The average length of stay in Croatia is 8 days, that is 30% less than the average stay in Montenegro and 18% less than in Greece. Whilst Croatian 3- and 4-star hotel prices are the second highest in the region, which may interfere with inspirational demand.   In the case of Greece, the length of stay is decreasing as hotel prices have increased compared to 2021 (especially in 5-star properties, which have increased prices by 10%) and are the highest in  south eastern  Europe.   Looking at the two  main markets of origin for the region, for the British market the data shows that there has been a slight drop in interest and searches, while the average length of stay is also shortening.   Likewise, Russia, despite its lack of direct connectivity, continues to show interest in traveling to Montenegro and staying for a longer period of time than in 2021.  

  According to Anna Borduzha, head of business development for Mabrian in Italy, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and the US: “This analysis shows the different rates of recovery of some of the main holiday destinations in south eastern Europe. Undoubtedly, the instability caused by the conflict in Ukraine has affected them in two ways: on the one hand, generating uncertainty for potential visitors this summer from Northern Europe and Western Europe, and on the other, affecting the Russian source market, with an historically large weight in the region. In this context of continuous changes, it is essential to have the most up-to-date data and analysis in order to define the correct tourism recovery policies.”

 

 

• Data shows that the region is still on the way to recovering pre-pandemic values but also shows significant changes in terms of origin markets capacity and hotel prices

  Mabrian Technologies, a leading tourism intelligence company, has analyzed  data for the main destinations in the Middle East in view of its participation in the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) fair that is being held this week in Dubai.   To this end Mabrian has looked at connectivity data for the top nine destinations in the Middle East (Cairo, Tel Aviv, Jeddah, Medina, Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Doha) and the main European destinations that have traditionally been markets of origin for these Middle Eastern cities (Spain, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, Greece and Switzerland).   The results show that the main destinations in the Middle East are having a challenging time recovering their connectivity volumes from  prior to the pandemic. Of the nine destinations analyzed, only two are at 2019 levels or have improved their connectivity: Cairo and Riyadh. Meanwhile Medina is the city that is furthest from its 2019 figures.     Right now Dubai, Doha, Jeddah and Riyadh are the best connected cities in the Middle East, adding between the four more than 38 million incoming places for the next three months – or 70% of all places scheduled for the nine cities analyzed (54.4 million places).   For its part, the main European markets of origin for destinations in the Middle East are the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. Among the European markets, only Austria shows better connectivity with the Middle East than in 2019 and both the United Kingdom and Germany are still 20% below 2019 figures.   Regarding accommodation, the analysis of the average prices of 1,141 hotels of all categories in these cities for the next month shows a relevant price increase. Prices have risenon average more than 20%, reaching increases of 80% in some specific cases. The cities with the most expensive accommodation are Medina, Dubai and Tel Aviv, where the average prices per night are between  €136 and €168.     Carlos Cendra, Sales & Marketing Director of Mabrian, comments "despite the fact that this study reveals that in the Middle East the rate of recovery is not the same as in other regions, the short-term prospects are good if the current dynamic continues – as we are seeing and commenting during this Arabian Travel Market. It must be taken into account that some of the important markets for this region, such as China, have not yet recovered their pre-pandemic demand.”