Published: September 27, 2021
Parts of Europe’s property sector were some of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but as vaccine programmes roll out and people start visiting hotels and shopping malls again there is light at the end of the tunnel.
For a significant part of 2020, airlines were operating at 10% of their usual passenger capacity, conferences were cancelled, large events such as weddings were banned.
This was disastrous for the hotel industry. Whitbread, the UK hotel company that owns Premier Inn, announced a 60.9% fall in year on year accommodation sales in the first quarter of 2021, while food and drink sales were down 86% over the same period. Hotel chains globally posted similarly gloomy figures.
Now, the industry showing some signs of a turnaround. Mass gatherings are allowed again across parts of EMEA, and vaccines continue to be rolled out.