Like twins, online and offline

Augsburg (June 5, 2020). The hotel industry is trying to learn from the retail trade how to anticipate wishes and personalise offers. Conversely, the retail industry "hotelizes" its shopping malls and shops. Corona is now driving both sectors towards a balance between stationary and virtual sales. The "booster" for additional sales is "delivery", for both: shop and hotel must "deliver" their promises, just as the product must be delivered to the customer's home in real life or the wishes must be fulfilled in the hotel itself. At the 3rd HospitalityInside Think Tank (HITT) on 23 June, a fascinating discussion is set to take place between the shopping mall investor and developer ECE Group (Otto Group) from Hamburg, the luxury hotel group Langham Hospitality from Hong Kong and Sabre Hospitality based in Dallas.

Editorial: The inner voice and the money

Dear Insiders,

This is how I imagine the "apocalypse": The inner voice says that the state is just distributing the last funds. The new economic stimulus package of the German government, presented on Wednesday, encompasses 120 billion euros. But who will get how much? And more importantly, when? Everything is open again, not defined clearly, even though we got the first clues late yesterday evening. The tourism associations such as Dehoga mainly criticise the periods and the amounts, which are much too modest. Again, this smells like acid rain, which will probably just delay some of the pending bankruptcies…

The Austrian state is also being criticised in a survey initiated by ÖHV's President Michaela Reitterer. In an interview, she says today: Some businesses have already received first loans and tax deferrals, but many have obtained nothing yet. The equity capital is already shrinking, in three to five years, nobody will have any money for investments. Therefore, already in 2023, the market adjustment will start in the tourism country of Austria. Fred Fettner has done some in-depth research in a second article.

This is bitter news, more indicators for the approaching "end" of an industry, which is simply supposed to make people happy. Against this background, the race to open the borders seems even more cynical: Because Germany lifted the travel warnings for 31 countries on Wednesday, Austria lifted all restrictions at the same time and spontaneously – with the exception of Italy. What uncoordinated chaos in Europe – not a single trace left of the former "union". The driving force behind all this is not sense or reason but the pressure of earning money in the summer as the governments' horns of plenty will not be sufficiently full to save all. Everybody can feel it. See above.

Given these circumstances, I do not understand why the hotel industry does not impose a surcharge for hygiene. Every hairdresser does it, the railways and airlines will do it without talking about it! Sylvie Konzack describes the creative and committed fight against the virus with sprays, spray mist and UV light, and the hiring of new hygiene and lobby managers to win over the trust of travellers. I permit myself to comment on the industry's lack of courage.

We are heading into a different kind of summer, where one event will follow the next, developments might be overhasty and then stopped again rigorously. In the next few weeks, the entire world will be looking at Europe – the largest experimental field in tourism of all times concerning corona. A region with various cultures and disciplines, with millions of people keen on travelling and one single virus looming above all and everyone.

Our goal is June 23: The day of our virtual Think Tank. And as an appetizer for the 3rd HITT, I'll serve you some insights from our "retail" session, where the shopping mall expert Dr. Volker Kraft of the ECE Group will discuss online and offline sales as well as digital sales increases with Langham Hospitality (CEO Stefan Leser)  and Sabre (MD Frank Trampert) for 90 minutes. A fascinating continuation of last year's lecture on retail brands. Have a look on page 1 and sign up at www.hitt.world.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
Editor-in-chief

Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com