MKG report April 2022

MKG report April 2022

After several years of frustration due to the global pandemic, European tourists are getting back to their habits as the summer season approaches.

European tourism is on the rise again, despite the war in Ukraine. With a more favourable health context, sanitary restrictions behind and a desire to travel again, the European hotel industry posted a RevPAR of only -8.6% in April, whereas the gap was still -16.6% last month (relative to March 2019). While the ADR is higher than 2019-levels on a European scale (+5.9%), the occupancy rate (although 10.0 points below 2019 levels) is also on a catch-up dynamic.

With the exception of Poland and Hungary, which had reached positive activity levels last month due to the impact of the Ukrainian crisis, relative to the previous month (March 2022 vs March 2019 all countries have seen their activity gap tightening in April 2022 relative to April 2019.

And the summer season is almost there: with the return of international customers, all ranges are now improving their results: the top end of the market is catching up with a gap of only -12.1% in RevPAR compared to 2019, when the budget range is showing a -5.7% gap.

So, after several summer seasons in slow motion, will the European hotel industry face a "travel frenzy" this summer?