
If hotel investment is attracting so much interest, it's because it's driven by a market that has demonstrated an astonishing capacity to react after the severe health crisis of 2020-2021. Supported more or less vigorously around the world by governments aware of the economic weight of tourism, hospitality has held strong, without collapsing as might have been feared. Where the work tool has been preserved, commercial accommodation professionals have managed to exploit, in the best sense of the word, a frustration of travel accumulated over many months.
In the name of local tourism or revenge travel, domestic and international stays showed remarkable growth starting in 2022, and revenue benefited from a broad acceptance of significantly higher average prices. The 2023 performances eventually caught up with and even surpassed the record levels of 2019.
France's case is exemplary, but it is not the only one. While the Asian clientele was still painfully absent in 2023, international arrivals from North America increased by more than 20%, those from Africa-Middle East by more than 19%, and those from Europe by around 15%.
That same year, France benefited from hosting the Rugby World Cup, which boosted long-haul arrivals from a clientele with strong purchasing power. In its annual analysis, MKG Consulting emphasized the good vintage of 2023: "If 2022 had already marked a return to levels well above pre-Covid, 2023 was the year of all records for French hospitality, with revenue per available room (RevPAR) up by +15% compared to 2022 and +25% compared to 2019. The occupancy rate continued its rebound (+2.5 points to nearly 67%), while prices grew by +10% over the year compared to 2022 and +26.4% compared to 2019.
"France is among the good students in the European market. It had already been among the first markets to bounce back post-crisis, with significant amplitude, and it remains in the leading pack for the best RevPAR performances relative to 2019, even though countries that were still lagging in 2022 have partly caught up in 2023. All the more so since RevPAR developments have been positive across all segments." Vanguelis Panayotis, president of MKG Consulting
In France, as elsewhere, the resilience of hospitality was all the more remarkable as it was predominantly driven by leisure travel, while business travel struggled and still struggles to serve as a restart engine...
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