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🏖️ FITURTECHY hosted a debate on January 22 about empowering local tourism businesses, featuring industry executives like Francisco Quintero (Landmar Hotels), Gabriel Llobera Ramis (Garden Hoteles), Diego Fernández Pérez de Ponga (Port Hotels), Armando Rodríguez (HD Hotels), and Juan Carlos Sanjuán (Casual Hotels), moderated by Daniel Sánchez (Paraty Tech). Topics included customer loyalty through packaging, branding strategies, data optimization, destination-hotel strategy alignment, artificial intelligence, market-specific communication, and tackling Canarias' marketing issues. Facing 2025 with a positive outlook, the group underscored the importance of customer loyalty, market diversification, and efficient management in times of prosperity to withstand future crises.

🏨 Mexican hotels lead with 50,000 rooms in 125 properties, followed by the Dominican Republic and Cuba. Key European markets include Germany, Italy, and Portugal, with Minor Hotels Europe & Americas and Meliá as major operators. The United States ranks fourth, predominantly managed by Barceló, handling 82% of Spanish hotel rooms there. At the bottom are Jamaica and Morocco, with Haiti and Mozambique highlighting the diversification with a single Spanish hotel each. José Elías invests in a new 100-meter, 520-room hotel skyscraper in Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona, set for completion by late 2025. Silken Hoteles eyes a 2025 expansion with a 13% growth in 2024, reaching over €130 million in sales, focusing on Morocco and Portugal for internationalization.

📌 DeepSeek, a Chinese AI competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT, aims to elevate the hotel and travel industry by understanding specific needs, integrating with existing systems, and directly impacting profitability and customer satisfaction. With capabilities like real-time data analysis, demand trend prediction, upselling opportunities, inventory management, guest experience personalization, operational efficiency enhancements, audience-targeted marketing, strict data security, system integration, and continuous innovation through machine learning, DeepSeek presents itself as a strategic partner, not just a tool, for the hotel sector. Embrace AI fearlessly to stay competitive in the swiftly evolving world.

💰 Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, warns that summer bookings for Spain are slower compared to other destinations like Greece, Turkey, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Portugal. He cites anti-tourism protests and some Spanish destinations preferring high-income tourists as reasons. Despite this, Jet2 plans to increase capacity by 9%, expecting to carry about 5.5 million passengers to Spain, with the highest growth on the peninsula at 12%, followed by the Balearic and Canary Islands at 9% and 8%, respectively.

💸 Finn Ackermann from Iberostar Hotels & Resorts defends hotel price increases, asserting that continuing price hikes are based on customer valuation and willingness to pay for the hotel experience. At Hotel Trends during Fitur, industry experts including Fernando Vives from Minor Hotels Europe & Americas, Íñigo Onieva from Barceló Hotel Group, and Beatriz Miguel from Ilunion Hotels discussed optimizing pricing through value propositions and operational promises. Vives emphasized diversifying market strategies, targeting international clients with higher spending patterns, and utilizing revenue management to improve profitability beyond just raising prices. Ackermann suggested Spanish hotels previously undercharged compared to international counterparts. Vives highlighted the 2024 recovery in price-quality ratio and RevPAR growth due to higher ADR from quality offerings.

🏖 During the International Tourism Trade Fair (Fitur), the Institute for Spanish Tourism Quality and Sustainability (ICTES) awarded the Q Awards, recognizing tourism sector entities supporting Quality Q and Sustainable Tourism S. This year marks ICTES's 25th anniversary. Awards went to Jerez City Council, Benidorm and Costa Blanca Hotel Business Association (HOSBEC), Axarquía Routes (Málaga), and journalist Carles Lamelo. Special 25th-anniversary awards were given to Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Apartments (CEHAT), Intelier Hotels, and Astún Ski Station (Huesca). The event, attended by over a thousand professionals, was held at Madrid City Hall's Crystal Gallery. ICTES President Miguel Mirones highlighted the importance of business associations, and the minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, emphasized Spain's leading tourism role. A new EU directive for 2024 mandates certified sustainability through independent audits; over 600 Spanish companies and destinations are now certified.

🏠 In 2024, over 60% of hotel arrivals in Spain were from international guests, despite a 5% room rate increase to an average of €212, peaking at €247 in August. The high season extended with May and October arrivals at 9.39% and 9% respectively, up from 2023. Booking lead times increased by 6%, reaching 39.41 days. (Source: SiteMinder's "Hotel Booking Trends 2025").

🏨 Hotel bookings in Spain show growth with early bookings exceeding 40% market share for four consecutive weeks. The week of January 20-26 showed a 42.2% share for early bookings made over 90 days in advance. The Canary Islands, Andalusia, and Catalonia accounted for nearly 53% of hotel bookings via TravelgateX in the last week, with market shares of 18.09%, 17.60%, and 17.17% respectively.

📱 Madrid, 24 de enero de 2025, clausura de la 19ª edición de FITURTECHY. Alba Renai, influencer virtual IA, captura la atención en el evento techYfuturo, patrocinado por American Express. Participantes incluyen TikTok, Microsoft, Telefónica, Bravent, entre otros. Discusiones sobre IA, redes sociales y Smart Cities. Un 30% de usuarios cambian de destino por RRSS; más del 40% reserva tras ver TikTok. Temáticas de personalización de experiencias, integración de IA en turismo, y el auge del turismo de bienestar físico y mental destacan. TechYdestino finaliza con taller de IA para destinos.

📊 On January 23, during Fitur 2025, a panel discussion titled 'La lámpara del dinero: Revenue Management y optimización de ingresos' featured experts like Javier Ortiz (CEO of Sextaplanta), Diego Fernández Pérez de Ponga (CEO of Port Hotels), and Chema Herrero (CEO of Bedsrevenue). Key strategies for hotel profitability, distribution, and customer loyalty were discussed. Diego Fernández highlighted the potential 50% profitability increase by shifting from OTAs to direct hotel website sales. Chema Herrero emphasized proper establishment-sizing and Herrero's insight on loyalty strategies being part of a business's DNA. Javier Ortiz noted the dominance of OTA marketing budgets while advocating for strategic OTA use, and the panel agreed on the necessity of including revenue management in hotels' financial and commercial strategies to maximize Total Profit and informed decision-making for overall profitability.