The CEO of Radisson Hotel Group, Federico González Tejera, believes that hotel price levels in almost all of Europe, including Spain, are stabilizing.
In an interview with EFE, he anticipates, after the increases experienced in recent years, a more moderate growth in 2025, of between 2% and 3% on averagewhich is “more reasonable than what there was until now.”
Spain has continued to be a market that has benefited from price growth, which has been somewhat higher due, in part, also to the fact that there are more and more four and five star hotels, which has an impact on the average rateprecise.
Nevertheless, growth “will be more moderate than in past years”predicts on the occasion of the presentation of the first Collection hotel, the most exclusive of Radisson, in Madrid, whose opening is scheduled for 2027, after a comprehensive renovation of the Generali building in which it is located.
The CEO argues that the economies of the EMEA markets (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) are advancing at a more moderate pace, there are also no major events like the Olympic Games and yes a lot of uncertainty about the different scenarioswhich “typically leads to more cautious growth estimates.”
Part of the current uncertainty is caused by the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine war conflicts that directly affect the chain’s hotels in Lebanon and Ukraine, and also they are suffering a lot those located in the Baltic Countries and Finland, according to González Tejera.
Despite this, he emphasizes, 2024 has been “a good year” for Radissonbelonging to the Chinese group Jin Jiang International, both in income, profits or occupation; as well as growth in hotels, which now number more than 1,500, exceeding the figure before the sale of its United States business in 2022.
González Tejera expects the group to continue growing at a similar rate in 2025, due more to the opening of new hotels than to the price increase in existing ones.
The company has had “spectacular growth” in Europe -in countries such as Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom or France- and in EMEA in general, where Radisson Blu continues to be, for 15 consecutive years, the largest ‘Upper Upscale’ brand (four stars superior), with more than 350 hotels .
For its part, the Radisson brand is the one that has signed the most hotel projects in the last three years in EMEA, while RED and Collection are very close to breaking the border of 100 establishments.
Up to 27 hotels in Spain in 2027
In Spain, Radisson plans to have 27 hotels in 2027 compared to about 10-12 that it has right now among those that are open and in development, he highlights.
Madrid, Barcelona, Canary Islands, Bilbao, Seville and Malaga They are the destinations on which Radisson is focused, because they have greater international demand and “a lot of potential”, by mixing their customer segments very well, he says.
In Madrid, the chain will have three hotels with the new Collectionbut the manager believes that there is still more room, just like in Barcelona, where he has a Blu, or in Malaga, where he is making progress on his first projects.
Madrid and Barcelona “remain the number one priority“, as well as the Canary Islands, where three of its four hotels are the first franchised in Spain and their results are “exceptional.”
More than 70% of their business comes through the Radisson system compared to an average of 60% contributed by its distribution channels to franchised hotels in EMEA.
Franchises account for 50% of the hotels of Radisson, a proportion that the group does not want to increase, in contrast to other international companies that have practically left management and are really only franchises.
“Today we are possibly the international company that operates the highest percentage of hotels because we believe that it is very important to maintain that vocation in order to make the franchise more efficient and more powerful,” he emphasizes.
“We are a very strong brand in the UK, In the Nordic countries, we have more than 350 hotels in China and more than 100 in India and we are increasingly stronger in France, Italy and Germany,” he adds.
They are the key marketsso the contribution of the group’s commercial system is very significant and guarantees demand, in addition to the fact that the Radisson brand allows it to have a higher price than many others that exist on the market.
Massification
Regarding the problem of tourist overcrowding in Spain, he says that, when situations of this type occur, “they are not pleasant for anyone, not even for the tourist,” but it will not be solved until the authorities make decisions about the number of visitors they want to have in a city and are able to explain to the population what its benefits are.
“And no one today is capable of explaining to a citizen that thanks to having 100,000 visitors in a city of 1 million inhabitants, we have this hospital open, and If they leave, it will have to be closed.”
“I think that everyone understands things when you explain it to them and, if you don’t do it, I think it’s good that people get irritated, because there are situations that are irritating,” he acknowledges.
The public authority has all the instruments at its disposal to solve it, just like the problem of tourist apartments that was created by the administrations themselves, which “They let themselves be guided by a wave that this is going to help families who have no income and what they have found a few years later is that it is nothing of the sort, but rather investors who buy apartments to fill them.”
#Radisson #expects #hotel #prices #slow
