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🏖️ During the III Ágora de Turismo Sostenible in UMusic Hotel Madrid-Teatro Albéniz, tourism companies discussed sustainability, focusing on people and collaboration. Ilunion Hotels' CEO José Ángel Preciados highlighted their ESG-based transformation, aiming to inspire the sector. Salva Medina of Valhalla emphasized innovation driven by a committed CEO. Víctor Martí of GMA Corporate and Orion mentioned creating 500+ social housing units for hotel workers. The event concluded with the tourism industry's commitment to social responsibility.

🏕️ Major Spanish hotel chains, including Meliá, Riu, and Iberostar, aim to extend the tourist season by keeping some establishments open year-round. Meliá will keep its hotels in Calviá, Menorca, and Ibiza operational until November, with its Palma hotel open all year. Riu will maintain three hotels in Mallorca open throughout the year: Riu San Francisco, Riu Concordia, and Riu Festival. Iberostar's Balearic hotels opened before Easter and will remain so until early November. Occupancy rates closed at over 90% in September, particularly in southern Spain and the Canary Islands, and high demand may continue into October if weather permits.

🏨 Hotel marketing, crucial in 2024, encompasses strategies to promote and position a hotel, targeting various traveler types through channels such as social media, online booking platforms, email campaigns, search engines, events, and hotel websites. Main goals include attracting new guests, retaining current ones, creating trust and loyalty through personalized campaigns and adapting to consumer behavior trends. Key strategies involve content marketing, local SEO, social media advertising, collaboration with microinfluencers, personalized email marketing, video marketing, loyalty programs, mobile experience optimization, customer experience personalization, AI utilization, AR, VR, marketing automation, sustainability, remarketing, programmatic advertising, gamification, native advertising, and voice search optimization.

💸 40% of international travelers plan to visit Europe in the last four months of 2024, a 4% decrease from the previous year. A survey conducted between August 5-18, 2024, with 7,000 participants from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, and the USA, reveals affordability as a main barrier (44%) to visiting Europe. US travel intentions have dropped significantly by 41% compared to last year due to high travel costs (40%), interest in other regions (23%), and insufficient vacation time (17%). Security remains the top criterion for choosing a European vacation destination (52%), with a notable increase in safety concerns among travelers from Australia, Japan, China, Canada, and the USA. Additionally, 40% of tourists seek occasional interaction with locals for a more enriching experience, while 36% are looking for deeper cultural experiences.

📊 Simón Pedro Barceló, Copresidente of Grupo Barceló, projects an Ebitda of €500 million for 2024 with €300 million coming from the Americas. In 2023, Barceló Hotel Group, Spain's second-largest hotel chain by revenue, achieved a turnover of €2,000 million, with an approximate 25% profit margin. The company is now debt-free and plans further expansion in key destinations, including Mexico, Morocco, Spain, USA, the Mediterranean Europe, and Asia.

🏢 Madrid hosts the Hospitality Real Estate Forum on October 22, featuring Antonio Catalán of ACHM Hotels by Marriott for the opening speech. The event, crucial for Spain's hotel investment sector, Europe's leading destination, offers a platform for professionals to discover opportunities, analyze trends, and innovate. Networking and insights into investment assets, development, technological growth, and emerging lodging modalities are key focuses. Hosteltur readers receive a 50% discount with code HOSTELTURHREF50.

🏖️ Spain's tourism sector is undergoing a transformative shift as a tool for talent attraction, moving beyond traditional models to embrace sustainability and social balance. The complexity of managing a tourist product is highlighted, requiring alignment of public and private strategies, long-term vision, and technological infrastructure for data sharing and promotion. KPMG emphasises Spain's need for consensus on tourism management, professionalization in public sector tourism roles, and the importance of sector dialogues through initiatives like "The Future of Tourism" which aims to guide industry improvements and strategy alignment.

💰 Non-refundable rates have been on the rise in recent years. Mirai, addressing the issue of failed payments often due to insufficient funds, double authentication errors, or international payment issues, has introduced "Failed Payments Recovery" (FPR) to reclaim up to 44% of failed reservation payment attempts. FPR allows customers to retry payments within a configured timeframe using the same or a different card, or an alternative payment method. Currently, FPR works with Redsys and Addon Payments, with plans to include more platforms.

🌍 The third edition of the Sustainable Tourism Ágora takes place on October 10 in Madrid, hosted by Green & Human and Hosteltur at the Albéniz Theater from 9:30 AM to 2:15 PM. Over 20 sector leaders, including Simón Pedro Barceló of Grupo Barceló, Miguel Sanz of Turespaña, and Tomeu Bennasar of Iberostar Group, will discuss the implementation of sustainable practices and adaptation to stricter environmental regulations. Registration is available for in-person or streaming attendance.

🌳 Costa Rica has been pioneering sustainable tourism strategies since the 1970s. María Fernanda Leiton, from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, highlights that 80% of the country's hotels are micro or small businesses, offering a wide range from 1 to 5 stars. The country promotes a sustainable model, attracting tourists willing to pay for a differentiated experience. The Institute also fosters a sustainable destination management program involving 33 destinations, focusing on local communities' needs and long-term ecosystem and cultural preservation. An important event, the III Ágora de Turismo Sostenible, will take place on October 10 in Madrid's Teatro Albéniz.