Ljubiša Krstajić, the founder of the Karisma Hotels & Resorts hotel group, at the “Summer 2023” conference, revealed some interesting details about how the hotel industry in the Caribbean, where his group has a large number of hotels, functioned during the pandemic:
“The pandemic was very difficult for our industry. In the Caribbean, from March 2020 to the end of September 2020, all our hotels were closed. In September 2020, we started to open some hotels, but by the New Year, capacity utilization was only 10 to 20 %.
During 2021, for us in the Caribbean, the entire European and Asian market was still closed, only guests came from the USA and not from all countries, but only from those where the Republicans were in power. So we had tourists from Texas, Florida, and Georgia. We didn’t have a single guest from New York or California, where the Democrats are in power and had a much more restrictive policy during the pandemic!”, said Krstajić.
About new trends in the hotel industry, Krstajić says: “In the past two years, I have noticed a trend that large hotel companies such as Hyatt and Marriott are entering the all-inclusive segment very seriously, which was not the case before. Also, American funds are strongly coming to Europe, especially Greece and Spain where they buy hotels and land… Capital is moving from America to Europe.
When it comes to the tour operator industry, more and more bookings are happening online and that trend continues year after year. In the airline industry – low-cost companies have announced big growth, they’re buying a lot of new aircraft! Those are some of the most important trends I’m seeing!”
The entire conference can be viewed HERE.