Is Thailand Really the Right Solution?

Nov 06, 09 | 1:58 am

By Berno-H. Feuring, founder of Feuring Hotelconsulting

A top holiday in a first-class, internationally renowned SPA-resort with a unique high-quality standard in terms of facilities and services:  This is the least most people expect when they book a flight to Asia.  How can it be that Europe, as the most popular holiday region in the world, is so under-developed when it comes to catering to the needs of people with such expectations?

Europe, is not in a position to cater for this significant part of first-class holiday travel because there are not enough SPA-resorts to choose from.   This means, there are not enough hotels offering services that underline the qualities of their natural location and make them attractive all year long.  They do not offer a wide enough range of additional services such as wellness or other interesting outdoor activities like golf, cultural events nor enough modern conference- and shopping facilities.  Hotels, which only offer their guests a place to spend the night or have a meal, no longer come up to the expectations of guests as we know them today and especially not of those in the upmarket hotel sector.  However, resorts in Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean are well equipped to meet these requirements.  International hotel chains like Hyatt, Four Seasons, Shangri-La or Hilton, for example, operate some very successful resorts there and know exactly what travellers want.  Why is the development of this sector in Europe, despite the potential there no doubt is, so very much behind the development in these regions?  The explanation is the lack of confidence and trust on behalf of the financing institutes:  On the one hand, bad examples like Heiligendamm justify their lack of trust in such resorts.  On the other hand, their mistrust is not justified because it is based on a lack of know-how and experience.

Sceptical investors

In Europe, it is very difficult to obtain the financial backing for a resort hotel.  Investors tend to have a preference for saturated markets with a certain track-record and put their stakes on the predatory competition factor.  Holiday resorts are considered to bear a much higher - unknown - risk than the better-known city hotels.  One of the main reasons for this is the high seasonality in occupancy of some resorts which results in the fact that during summer, ski-resorts, for example, shut down completely for a certain amount of weeks whilst beach resorts in the Mediterranean do not have a lot of bookings during winter.  Why, however, are some of these resorts downright cash cows and why can they achieve very good all-year occupancy rates at above-average prices, although at first glance conditions do not seem to be in their favour?  The answer is that it is very important to offer the right concept in order to meet prevailing demand.


About Berno-H. Feuring

In 1959 Berno-H. Feuring founded the company Feuring in Mainz/Germany. At this time he was 21 years old and the youngest hotel director in Germany. Soon after he established the first „Europa Hotel" in Mainz and other Europa Hotels in other cities and countries he started as hotel consultant. Nowadays the company accompanies its customers right from the idea, the market analysis and concept over the procurement of an operator and the arrangement of agreements, setting up a steering committee, fitting and furnishing the hotel up to the turn-key handover and the subsequent investment control. Up till now, Feuring has successfully supported investors and hotel chains in the development of more than 400 first class and luxury hotels in Germany and elsewhere. The financial volume of current projects amounts to around 1 billion Euros. www.feuring.com.