Emerging from a bonanza year as guest numbers, bookings and room rates soared, Spain’s main hotel chains have announced ambitious plans for 2024 expanding in existing markets and opening new territories.
Speaking during the FITUR travel trade fair in Madrid, executives termed 2023 as remarkable, citing Spanish government figures showing average room rates rocketed by 28 per cent over the past two years, and predicted that this year could be even better as tourism numbers break records.
“In 2023 we saw the consolidation of our business and a strengthening of our financials and so we now have a great opportunity to capitalize on expansion,” said Gabriel Escarrer, the CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Spain’s largest chain with 380 properties in some 40 countries and incorporating nine separate luxury, premium and other brands.
Meliá posted a net profit of 108 million euros in the first nine months of last year, up more than 6 per cent over pre-pandemic 2019. MICE business enjoyed a 23 per cent increase as did the number of business guests over the same period in 2022, Escarrer told reporters.
“And so far this year, advance bookings are up by 15 per cent compared to this time in 2023,” he said.
“We opened a dozen hotels in 2023 and we will be debuting 20 this year totaling 4,000 rooms, mostly in the resort category. That’s a new hotel every two weeks.”
Albania growth
Escarrer highlighted the group’s presence in Albania, one of the Mediterranean’s newest destinations where Meliá operates three luxury properties and has 13 more in the pipeline.
At a press conference, the CEO was joined by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama who praised the Spanish company’s activities as a harbinger of further investment.
“We see Meliá as a true partner and not just an investor and the group has been the icebreaker as more and more international chains are approaching us. Albania wants to be a high-end destination and that is what Meliá represents,” Rama said.
The CEO said the group is also focusing on the Caribbean where it opened four properties in Cuba last year and will double its portfolio in Mexico to 14 over the next two years.
This year will also see the debuts of four of the group’s Mediterranean-inspired Zel brand hotels in Madrid and Tossa del Mar in Spain, Sayulita in Mexico and the Dominican Republic’s Punta Cana.
The Barceló Group has earmarked 400 million euros to acquire new assets and spruce up existing properties in 2024 following two years of spectacular results, EMEA CEO Raúl Gonzalez said, maintaining its rhythm of between 23 and 25 openings a year.
“Morocco will continue to be important to the group and we’ll be totally refurbishing two purchases in Casablanca and Rabat, along with a rented property in Tangier,” he said.
Other openings include hotels in Cappadocia, Cabo Verde, Zanzibar, Phuket, and the Maldives.
“And with the growth we’re seeing in the Middle East, we are also moving ahead on projects in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia while looking into the market in Oman,” Gozalez told reporters.
Growth not sustainable
Despite the strong rebound of the hotel sector since the end of COVID-19, the CEO said he remained cautious
“This double-digit growth is not sustainable and things could get complicated for the sector,” he warned “And we still haven’t seen a return to pre-pandemic levels of our Asian guest numbers which are down 20 per cent from those years.
Family-owned Riu Hotel group, with 97 hotels in 21 countries totaling more than 50,000 keys, reported it closed 2023 with a record income of 3.6 billion euros, for a 24 per cent increase over the previous year fueled by an average 10 per cent increase in room rates and average occupancy of 89 per cent.
“Thanks to these figures we’re heading into this year with optimism and with our big project, the Riu Plaza Chicago, opening before the end of 2024, we’ll be hanging out our shingle in one of the most important cities in the world,” executives said in a press release.
Also this year, the group will add another resort to the six it operates in Jamaica and two new builds in Mauritius, all scheduled for May openings.
Record breaking
For the first time Palladium Hotel Group, incorporating nine luxury, premium and upscale brands, broke through the 1-billion-euro income mark in 2023, following what President Abel Matutes termed an “exceptional” summer for its portfolio of mostly resort properties.
“Surpassing the 1-billion-euro barrier which was a 16 per cent rise over 2022 ensured our business model with growth accompanied by profitability and guest satisfaction in a winning combination,” he said.
The group spent 100 million euros on renovations last year with more scheduled for 2024 when the opening is planned for an Only You branded property in Seville with 209 rooms.
Another five-star Only You is to open next year in Venice in cooperation with investor ECE Real Estate Partners and will be the group’s first urban hotel in Italy where it operates the Grand Palladium Sicilia Resort & Spa.
“Our debut of the three-star 45 Times Square Hotel in New York City is our first step into the U.S. market and we are exploring further opportunities in other U.S. cities such as Miami and Los Angeles along with destinations in the Mediterranean, Mexico and the Middle East,” Matutes told reporters.
Sercotel, with 95 urban properties in Spain and Andorra, is marking its 30th anniversary this year by moving into the beach resort sector and is scouting possibilities in the Balearic and Canary Islands and the Costa del Sol, according to CEO José Rodriguez.
“We had a fantastic, spectacular 2023 with billings of 124.6 million euros, 33 per cent higher than the previous year and with the planned addition of between 12 and 15 hotels this year, we’re looking at 160 million euros in 2024,” he said.
Among the new properties will be three to five seaside resorts of between 80 and 250 rooms.
“We’re already in talks on these so we’re not going to be just an urban hotel company anymore. It’s a very fragmented sector and there are lots of rental, management and franchise opportunities working with independent owners and small chains,” he said.
“This new chapter is going to keep us busy here in Spain and we have no plans to expand into other countries for the time being.”