Verhuven eyes more hotel deals

HOTELS

Alltours owner Willi Verhuven told fvw in an interview that he wants to take over more hotels and add luxury suites to diversify the properties’ portfolios. The German group recently took over two more Palmira hotels on Majorca, making Allsun into the second-largest hotel chain on the island. There are now 21 Allsun hotels on Majorca as well as six in the Canary Islands.

The Allsun hotels cooperate closely with the company’s core German charter holidays business, Verhuven explained. About 250,000 Alltours customers stayed in an Allsun hotel last year. “We can steer jointly and that improves the profitability for both sides,” he said. “Allsun contributes a double-digit million euro profit every year to the results of the Alltours Group,” he noted.

Spain will remain the main geographical focus for future expansion, Verhuven confirmed. “I have a long wish-list of properties that interest me.” He played down the likelihood of investing in Turkey or Egypt but added: “Fundamentally I would not exclude any destination if it brought advantages for Alltours.” Last year alone Alltours invested €120 million from its own financial resources in buying and modernising hotel properties.

The main criteria for an Allsun property are a location “as close to the beach as possible”, between 240 and 360 rooms, extensive wellness and fitness facilities, and “a pleasant atmosphere with plenty of exclusive details”, according to the German tourism entrepreneur. Moreover, he is now planning to introduce more luxury rooms and suites into the Allsun hotels. “We’re building luxury suites in various Allsun hotels at the moment. In future there will be luxury suites in many Allsun properties.”

Meanwhile, Alltours has revealed mixed bookings for summer 2016, similar to many other German tour operators. The company announced at ITB last week that it has double-digit growth for Spain, including a 25% increase for the Canary Islands, and for Bulgaria, while Greece is divided between strong growth for Crete and Rhodes but a decline in Kos sales. Sales are “sharply down” for Turkey and North Africa.

“Demand is switching strongly to the western Mediterranean,” Verhuven commented. On Turkey, he said that hoteliers are discounting by up to 50% at present, meaning that holidays “at last-minute prices” are already on the market for the destination.

Alltours still aims to reach this year’s target of a 1.8% rise in customer numbers despite a current overall drop in sales.

Tagged
Leave A Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *