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Executives at British firm IHG Hotels & Resorts said their full-year 2023 earnings showed a clear picture of an industry pretty much back to full strength, with travel demand passing 2019 levels in China and business travel also showing a return in the last quarter of the year.

“Despite tougher comparables as we progressed through the year, [fourth-quarter] RevPAR still finished up 8% year-on-year, and up 13% versus 2019. … Our fee margin continued to expand, growing by 3.4% points in the year … helping to drive operating profit to just over $1 billion, up 23% on 2022,” said CEO Elie Maalouf.

Moon GC&P Investments, an investment firm owned by Spanish bank Banco Santander, has signed a deal with Meliá Hotels International to own a €300 million ($323 million) minority stake in the share capital of a subsidiary company of the Meliá Group, which owns three hotels. The hotels include the 157-room ME London, 604-room Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, and 338-room Meliá Cala Galdana on Menorca in the Balearic Islands.

Moon’s stake, according to Spanish hotels magazine Hosteltur, has been reported to Spain’s National Securities Market Commission and will take a 38.2% stake in the share capital effective April 11 through new type B shares.

"This transaction is part of Meliá's strategic objectives, in order to maintain the strength of our balance sheet. The fact that it is backed by a partner with the prestige and leadership of Banco Santander is a guarantee, and a magnificent sign of confidence," Ángel Luis Rodríguez, chief financial officer of Meliá Hotels International, told the news outlet.

There is some evidence of capital strain on Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 projects and its accompanying giga-projects’ program, which has an estimated total spending on hotels, hospitality and related infrastructure totaling more than $1 trillion. Now, the country’s government is starting to wince at the expense and look at borrowing, something the kingdom has been averse to in recent years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Saudi Arabia is considering “another gargantuan sale of stock in the country’s crown jewel, oil behemoth Saudi Aramco,” the news outlet reports, adding Saudi Arabia’s cash levels have fallen by “roughly three-quarters to about $15 billion, the lowest since December 2020.”

Accor has said it will bring its Raffles Hotels & Resorts brand to Saudi giga-project NEOM with a 105-room hotel in the destination’s Trojena district, according to Trade Arabia. The hotel is slated to open in 2027.

Chinese Lunar New Year travelers have returned to pre-COVID-19 spending levels in the recent holiday, which spanned across eight days. According to the BBC, travelers spent 632.7 billion yuan ($88 billion), a 47% increase on spend for the same event in 2023.

This year, the start of the Year of the Dragon, fueled 474 million domestic trips, marking a 34% increase over 2023 and 19% increase over 2019. The event, which ended Feb. 17, is regarded as the world’s largest modern-day migration.

Global financial powerhouses — many with considerable investments in the hotel industry, such as BlackRock — are pulling back from climate-change pledges due to political pressure and accusations of “woke capitalism,” according to a report in the New York Times, which also refers to companies such as Bank of America, JPMorgan, Pimco and State Street.

The newspaper said some financial companies have left a lobbying group called Climate Action 100+, perhaps due to that group’s 2023 change of strategy in which “it called on asset-management firms to begin pressuring companies … to adopt policies that could entail, for example, using fewer fossil fuels.” BlackRock is quoted in the article as stating “that one of its subsidiaries, BlackRock International, would continue to participate in the group,” a tacit acknowledgment, so says the newspaper, of “the different regulatory environment in Europe.”

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