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1. KKR, Baupost Group acquire 33-hotel portfolio
New York City-based KKR & Co. Inc and Boston-based Baupost Group acquired a portfolio of 33 Marriott International hotels in the United Kingdom from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for £900 million ($1.16 billion), HNN's Terence Baker reports.
Hotels featured in the transaction include the 311-room London Marriott Hotel Regent's Park and the 206-room London Marriott Hotel County Hall. KKR started to put together a £600 million debt package to finance the transaction back in May.
2. Cities continue to bank on convention centers
Companies are spending less on annual conferences since fewer people have been attending them since the pandemic, but cities continue to invest in convention centers in an effort to drive tourism spending, the New York Times reports.
Convention centers are typically financed through hotel taxes paid by visitors, the newspaper reports. In recent years, convention centers in cities such as Las Vegas, Denver, San Francisco, New York, Dallas and Los Angeles have invested in upgrading a current center or building a new one. Conferences and corporate meetings generated about $119 billion in economic activity last year, down from $139 billion in 2019.
“There are some headwinds out there,” said Amy Calvert, chief executive of the Events Industry Council. “To assume that we’re just going to go back to doing things the way we did them because it seemed to be safe, I think, would be a mistake.”
3. India ripe for hotel growth
A combination of strong travel demand, low supply and bountiful investment money is setting India up to have major hotel growth in the near future, HNN's Stephanie Ricca reports.
Inbound travel into India has grown substantially over the past few years, nearing pre-pandemic levels. Domestic travel continues to drive a lot of demand from business travel, religious pilgrimages and weddings. As India's middle class grows and travels for more events, supply growth is sure to follow.
"India's the best we've ever seen it, probably ever," said Vijay Thacker, partner and CEO of Crowe Advisory India and a managing director for Horwath HTL India. "It's under supplied — though supply is growing substantially — and there's strong demand."
4. Germany could turn to services sector to overcome economic woes
Germany's economy has been struggling mightily in recent years, and there haven't been signs of an upswing. Industrial production decreased 2.5% in September after rising 2.6% in August, a sign that a recovery hasn't yet begun, the Wall Street Journal reports.
One potential solution to the country's woes is a shift in focus to its services sector, which is growing faster than its manufacturing segment, Reuters reports. Services, which includes hospitality, finance and IT, grew 1.6% in the first half of 2024 while manufacturing decreased 2.8%.
"If you can do something to boost a bit the services sector, it could overcompensate for the shrinkage in manufacturing," said Guntram Wolff, senior fellow at think tank Bruegel and professor of economics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
5. Consumer prices in China increase at slowest pace in four months
Even with new stimulus measures in place, China's consumer prices increased at the slowest pace in four months in October, Reuters reports. The consumer price index rose 0.3% year over year in October, slowing from 0.4% in September.
According to Reuters, analysts project the recent stimulus efforts won't have any impact on economic activity, demand and prices in the short term.
"Due to the Golden Week holiday in October, the effect of stimulus policies on promoting domestic demand issued since late September is not obvious yet," said Bruce Pang, chief economist at JLL.