by Hilton Krakow Hotel and Con- vention Centre, which will add 232 rooms as well as 16 meeting rooms for up to 2,000 delegates. A Hampton by Hilton property is also located on the same site.
ECONOMIC SANCTIONS One area of potential disruption for eastern Europe is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has led to the EU and US imposing economic sanctions on Russia due to its alleged involvement in the fighting. This, inevitably, has led to some nervousness among Russia’s direct neighbours, including the three Baltic states.
If the situation escalates, will this lead to companies looking for the safe havens of western Europe and elsewhere for their events? “Our key clients are still unsure about booking conferences
Krakow, Poland
One area of potential disruption for eastern Europe is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine
HOTEL ROUND-UP Marriott Renaissance. Kiev
FEARS OF A NEW ‘COLD WAR’ between the EU and Russia over the Ukraine conflict have yet to affect the pace of hotel development in Russia. Industry figures from
research firm STR Global showed that there were 51 hotels being built in Russia in spring 2015, including 13 properties in Moscow, which will
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
add 9,734 rooms to the country’s inventory. This represents the second biggest pipeline of hotel rooms in Europe, after the UK, which has 11,542 rooms under construction. Russia’s boom in new
hotels reflects both the long-term nature of hotel investment and the need for additional accommodation
to host the Fifa World Cup football tournament in 2018. Much of the development is being led by the big global chains – Intercontinental Hotels Group, for example, launched both Holiday Inn Express and Indigo brands in Russia last year. Russia’s current hotel prices have seen the biggest fall in average daily rates across Europe during 2015 with Moscow rates down by 12.4 per cent to €105.74 and prices in St Petersburg tumbling by 10.6 per cent to an average of €65.91. These drops have been put down to the fall in the value of both the Russian rouble and the oil price. Ukraine had one of the fastest-growing hotel sectors in the region before the crisis and this pipeline of developments is continuing, particularly in
the capital Kiev, with Starwood planning to open an Aloft property in January 2016, while a Renaissance hotel is due to open in Kiev’s city centre towards the end of next year. Poland is the other east European destination scheduled to see significant expansion of its hotel sector, with new Doubletree by Hilton properties in both Krakow and Warsaw, while a Renaissance hotel located next to Warsaw Chopin airport is also due to open this year.
Other notable hotel developments within eastern Europe this year include the Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel in Croatia, which is the rebranding of an existing 250- room property with 1,000sqm of meeting space; and the opening of the first Park Inn by Radisson in Bucharest.
BBT JULY/AUGUST 2015 79
and events in this location and would rather stick to western Europe – with Germany, France and Switzerland being booked the most outside of the UK,” says Click’s Jardine. “Duty-of-care is as important a factor
in organisations’ thinking now as it has ever been,” she adds. “Travelling to a dangerous or potentially dangerous territory just does not make sense if other options are available.”
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