BERLIN — Sustainable growth is the top priority as Wyndham Hotels & Resorts expands across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
This region has been a standout for the New Jersey-based Wyndham. In 2021, the company signed 70 franchise agreements in the region and openings included its 50th hotel in India, the debut of La Quinta and Days Inn brands in the Middle East, and 12 resorts across Europe.
Dimitris Manikis, president for the EMEA region at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said he anticipates this summer will bring yet another wave of strong leisure demand to the region, but the key now is sustaining that demand year-round.
“We have pent-up demand now,” he said. “People want to travel out of country; we see airlines adding new destinations; we see tier-two and tier-three cities growing up in demand.”
That demand creates opportunity, Manikis said.
“The key thing for us is that we capture the demand and we make sure it continues — that it is not just seasonal,” he said. “We make sure that people are happy; we make sure that we provide the right services, provide the right experiences, the right atmosphere, so people can say, ‘You know what? I’ll go back there next year.’ It’s all about the years to come, not just 2022.”
At the same time, Wyndham is paying close attention to how travel behaviors may have changed permanently, Manikis said.
“The growth of tier-two and tier-three cities [means] it’s not just about Madrid or Barcelona or Paris or London anymore," he said. "It’s about Marseille; it’s about Lyon; it’s about Frankfurt — cities we didn’t have in our priority list are now becoming very attractive destinations."
Wyndham’s growing brand portfolio gives developers in the EMEA region more options to meet the needs of travelers, Manikis said.
He cited the company’s Trademark Collection by Wyndham as “a big success” in the region.
Wyndham partners with German hotel operator H-Hotels.com, which manages 50 Trademark hotels across Europe, and has more openings in Europe on the way.
Wyndham brands, both established and newer, also are finding footing in the region. The company added 18 Ramada by Wyndham hotels across the region in 2021, and it opened the first La Quinta and Days Inn hotels in Dubai in 2021.
The company recently opened its first Tryp by Wyndham in Greece, and the company’s first hotel in Poland, the Wyndham Wroclaw Old Town.
“It’s about the owner, the destination, the appetite,” Manikis said. “Our strategy is to grow our brands that fit the European and EMEA region, and at the same time make sure that whatever brands we either acquire or develop, we give a fair chance to develop in this region as well.”
That goes for the all-inclusive resort brand Alltra by Wyndham the company launched last fall.
Alltra launched in the Caribbean, but Manikis said it’s a perfect fit for Europe.
“All-inclusive is one of the ways we vacation here in Europe — look at Portugal, look at Spain, look at Greece, my own home country,” he said. “Alltra is a great opportunity for us to develop, especially in the southeastern Mediterranean … Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, the Aegean Coast. For us, it’s a no-brainer that this is going to be our next step.”
But it all comes back to sustaining demand, Manikis said.
“We know the Chinese will not travel this year to Europe, so you develop staycation packages, you develop innovative ideas to keep people, to keep hotels part of the community,” he said. “It’s not just about staying overnight; it’s about creating the right infrastructure for people to eat at the hotel, work from the hotel, spend time at the hotel, have their weddings at the hotel.”
Making hotels community hubs can open up opportunities for all, Manikis said.
Doing so “has helped us a lot to build a completely different type of user, consumer and traveler,” he said. “That is something we need to develop for the future. Now’s the time, absolutely.”
For more from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts' Dimitris Manikis, watch the video above.