HVS released its European Hotel Transactions 2008 report. The report released by its London office indicates that European transaction volume decreased by two-thirds in 2008 and portfolio activity took a big hit and was down by three-quarters over the prior year.
Only one asset in 2008 fetched more than €900,000 per room (while there were three in both 2006 and 2007), which was the JW Marriott Capri Tiberio Palace Resort & Spa on the island of Capri, Italy.
Gaylord Entertainment Co. announced that it has reached agreements with TRT Holdings, a major shareholder, and GAMCO Asset ManagementIAT, a money manager that owns shares of Gaylord on behalf of its clients, on Gaylord’s board nominees for the 2009 Annual Meeting and on amendments to Gaylord’s shareholder rights plan. Under the agreements, TRT and GAMCO will withdraw their previous board nominations and resolutions and vote their shares for Gaylord’s nominees.
Gaylord will increase the size of its board from nine to 11 directors. The Gaylord nominees will include seven current directors, TRT nominees Robert Rowling and David Johnson, and GAMCO nominees Robert S. Prather, Jr. and Glenn J. Angiolillo. The current directors who will stand for reelection are Colin V. Reed, Michael Bender, E. K. Gaylord II, Ralph Horn, Ellen Levine, Michael D. Rose and Michael I. Roth.
PATA released its Quarterly Tourism Monitor from its Strategic Intelligence Centre. Figures received so far from 37 destinations in the Asia Pacific and Americas show year-on-year decreases in arrivals numbers across the board, the downturn was not enough to drag the annual growth figure into negative territory. Provisional results show a modest 1.9 percent growth for calendar year 2008 in these same 37 destinations with only the Pacific region suffering a drop (4.6 percent) compared with 2007.
The International Air Transport Association released its Airlines Financial Health Monitor in which it reported airline losses during 2008Q4 at US$4 billion were larger than expected, because of recession and fuel hedging losses. The report also pointed to industry net losses for 2008 of more than the US$5 billion forecast in December, and the losses could grow.
AMEinfo.com reports that the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) said that the city’s hotels’ combined revenue reached Dhs15.25 billion in 2008, an increase of 15 percent. The DTCM said that hotels hosted 6,996,449 guests in 2008, up from 6,951,798 visitors in the previous year. The city also registered a 15.9 percent increase in the number of hotel rooms and hotel apartments, to 49,598.
