During our visit to MIPIM 2016, it became more clear that this year the hotel and tourism sector will be among the leading subjects in the real estate market. There were several sessions and workshops concerning the hospitality trends and recent issues e.g. major hotel chains maintaining their space growth versus the increasingly competitive market of new players, and the consolidation trend will continue in 2016 despite the new digital distributors cutting the ground from under their feet. The buzz around the hospitality market was predictable as the given sector has a huge impact on world economy. According to journalist Vicky Karantzavelou, the year 2015 recorded around 20bn euros of hotel investments transacted in Europe (source: CBRE) and saw two epic mergers: the Marriott Starwood merger in November creating the world’s largest hotel company and Accor Hotels’ acquisition of FRHI with the brands of Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel.
All investors and major hotel chains are obviously calculating the formula of space and the income per purchase, however, as the global travel is growing across leisure, corporate and group segments, it has become increasingly more important to find the unique qualities to stand out from the crowd and the specific avant-garde lifestyle to promote. In the hospitality sector, the winner of 2016 MIPIM Awards was JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa in Italy (http://www.marriott.com/…/vcejw-jw-marriott-venice-resort-…/). The hotel’s unique ecological concept attracts attention due to its private location on the island Isola delle Rose and with its ultimate luxury retreat the place caters for both romantic breaks and family escapes.
In our networking event at MIPIM, we presented among other projects our lifestyle spa hotels Spa Hotel Hedon and Kubija Hotel & Nature Spa. The former is a highly valued historical neoclassical beach spa hotel including a quiet spa with body treatment and health centre services, while the latter is known for its private lakeside location in the middle of South-Estonian pine groves and its unique sleep clinic, cosy spa and sauna centre. The given spas have also been mentioned among Top 11 Estonian spas for relaxation by the web magazine Elustilist.ee in cooperation with booking.com(http://elustilist.ee/11-eesti-parimat-hotelli-loogastumise…/) and Hedon Spa Hotel has been included in Tripadvisor Top 10 of best hotels in Estonia (https://www.tripadvisor.com/TravelersChoice-Hotels-cTop-g27…).
Visiting MIPIM 2016 and meeting the world’s key players in the field gave us several good new contacts and new impulses for designing hotels and spas. The trends in the hospitality sector clearly show that today, more than ever before, it is crucial to concentrate on client experience, healthcare and lifestyle .