Europe’s cities are lagging behind in recovery

In addition, there is a sustained decline in business trips. Many companies, which have drastically reduced their travel costs during the pandemic, apparently want to continue to hold a large part of their meetings virtually. “The industry agrees on that,” says Philip Moscoso, tourism expert at the Spanish business school IESE. The absence of business travelers is a particular burden for hoteliers. “Business travelers spend more money per day than tourists, for example because they rent conference rooms or order breakfast in their room.”

An overview of the situation in European tourist cities.

Italy and France: Tourists from China and Russia are missing

In view of the streams of tourists in Rome’s old town alleys between the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon, some Romans are almost wistfully thinking back to the peak of the pandemic, when the Eternal City belonged to them all alone. But the pre-corona level is far from being reached. Marina Lalli, President of the Federturismo Association, says: “To be honest, in 2019 Rome was overwhelmed. We are still a long way from that today.”

In February, around 400 of the 1,250 hotels were still closed. According to Lalli, around 150 houses remained closed even at Easter – they will probably no longer open at all.

Overall, however, Easter business was good, especially in cities known for their art treasures, such as Venice and Florence. In addition to Italians, many holidaymakers came from other European countries, but also a few Americans.

However, two important groups for Italy’s tourism, which accounts for around 13 percent of economic output, would still be missing, says Lalli: “We do not expect any Asians for the whole year because of Corona.” The travel restrictions are too great, the prospects too uncertain. On top of that, the Russians are staying away because of the war: Although they are not that important for Italy in terms of numbers, they leave a lot of money in the country.

In Paris, one of the world’s most visited cities, images of Chinese shoppers walking down the Champs-Élysées with Chanel bags are also a thing of the past. And here, too, the Russian buyers are absent. At least one consolation for the luxury industry is that the Americans are slowly coming back: with twelve percent, they already make up the second largest group of visitors.

A quarter of all Paris visitors are currently French – twice as many as usual.

More on tourism in Europe:

On the other hand, there is little movement on business trips. In normal times they make up half of the occupancy in the hotels in Paris, but now they are still rare. Since the beginning of the year, the hotels have been fuller on the weekends than during the week, according to the management consultancy MKG, which specializes in tourism.

The situation in Italy is similar. Large events such as trade fairs and conferences are just getting going again, the corona rules have been relaxed everywhere. But there will no longer be many business trips, especially the short ones just for a meeting, says the Italian head of the association. Milan, the country’s financial and economic metropolis, could suffer most from this.

Greece: hope for the Americans

Many hotels in Greece were fully booked at Easter. On islands such as Mykonos, Santorini, Kos and Rhodes, hoteliers are already reporting more bookings for the summer than in the previous record year 2019.

According to information from industry circles, however, hotel bookings in Athens are still 25 percent below the pre-crisis level. According to experts, this can also be due to the fact that more and more holidaymakers are booking private accommodation on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com.

>>Read here: Russian oligarch grabs port in Greece – US concerned

The Greek Tourist Office EOT is now specifically promoting weekend trips to Athens and Thessaloniki with commercials on social media. In the words of its general secretary Dimitris Frangakis, the tourist office wants to place Athens and Thessaloniki “on an equal footing with other well-known three-day destinations such as Paris, Rome, London or Barcelona”.

The advertising should primarily help the city hotels. They were particularly affected by the pandemic because, in addition to tourists, business travelers were also absent.

Despite the rather weak bookings so far, the Athens hoteliers have not given up hope for a strong summer and autumn season, because city trips are usually booked at short notice than longer stays.

The tourism industry has high hopes for the Americans in particular. The big three US airlines American, Delta and United are offering more flights to Greece this summer than ever before. They connect Athens non-stop with New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington and Atlanta. Experience has shown that American tourists spend a few nights in Athens before continuing on to one of the islands.

Austria: hotel deaths in Vienna

Vienna is particularly badly hit: numerous hoteliers in the capital did not survive the corona crisis. There are 16 percent fewer hotel operations today than before the pandemic; at the same time, the number of beds has fallen by eight percent.

The Viennese hotels have become larger on average. Austria’s government has generously supported the tourism sector during the pandemic. Without the help, even more hotels would have disappeared.

In the first quarter, overnight stays in Vienna were still 56 percent below the level of 2019. However, with 17.6 million overnight stays, that was also the previous record year.

Vienna has a wide mix of guests. Non-European tourists book between 25 and 30 percent of overnight stays. The lucrative congress tourism is also of great economic importance. However, large congresses are still not taking place in Vienna. “It will take a while,” says Norbert Kettner, head of Vienna Tourism.

Spain: ray of hope in March

There is at least one ray of hope for the Spanish cities. Thanks to domestic visitors, they are catching up compared to the rural holiday regions. In January, for example, the business of Spanish city hotels was 35 percent below the level of 2019. The hotels on the coast, on the other hand, had “only” 28 percent fewer guests.

With the end of the restrictions and the opening of all museums, theaters and art galleries, city tourism is also slowly recovering. In March it was only 14 percent below the pre-crisis level and thus almost exactly at the level of the coastal regions (minus 13 percent). Similar to Paris, many locals have driven the recovery in the Spanish cities: According to the Spanish tourist association Exceltur, they treated themselves to weekend trips to the metropolises again.

More: “Will be more profitable than before the crisis” – Tui boss Joussen wants to return more government loans