Editorial

Hotels Bedding Down

The Sofia hotel scene has historically hardly been blessed with hotels belonging to international hotel brands, that is compare the presence of such brands in other European capital cities. Turning the clock back a few decades, the Accor brand Novotel was one of the first global brands to appear on the local scene, it took residency where many European Novotel’s were initially located: next to the main railway station. That particular hotel is now the Ramada after being the Princess in the interim period.  At the same time, the Sheraton Hotel in Sofia became the grand old lady of hotels and was sat on top of the perch for many years in status and prestige. That building was bought by a Greek company and after a period of being an affiliate to the Marriott chain (the Marriott Group buying out the Starwood brand that owned the Sheraton brand several years ago), the hotel, now known as the Sofia Balkan is now brandless.

In the early 000’s, the Hilton and the Radisson appeared on the scene as the local hotel landscape started to change. The Hilton is still the Hilton (after undergoing a significant refurb recently) whilst the Radisson is now the Intercontinental which is part of the IHG Group. Also, brands of the IHG group are the Holiday inn and Crowne Plaza, the Holiday inn opening at the Sofia Business Park in 2007 but built to Crowne Plaza specifications. Thus, it was no surprise that it changed identity to the Crowne Plaza in Autumn 2024. Just to complicate matters, the Intercontinental brand made a brief appearance in Sofia in the mid 1990’s in what is now the Marinella Hotel, noting that before it was the Marinella it was the Kempinski until they walked away in 2014 and have not returned since. In and amongst all this, a new Novotel appeared adjacent to “”The Mall” in December 2012. Just to confuse matters slightly, hotel brands have also found a way to show half a flag by seconding partner or affiliate hotels that are not directly controlled by them but from where you can earn and spend their loyalty points, Marriott having the Juno Hotel and Sense Hotel included in this category, whilst the Radisson Group, without any direct local presence have signed the Metropolitan Hotel as an affiliate to the Radisson chain.

It would also be remiss to not mention the Ibis brand who have a presence with their hotel at Sofia Aiport. Ibis belong to the Accor group exactly the same as Novotel. We must not forget either the appearance of the Best Western in the capital where they currently have four properties who carry the Best Western name. without complicating matters, the Best Western Hotels are slightly different in that they are a membership network rather than a traditional brand chain.

The local hotel scene though is about to evolve once again as the aforementioned Marriott Group are shortly to open their own flagship hotel on Hristo Botev Blvd at the junction with Pozitano Street. The new Marriott is due to open its doors early in the New Year and will encompass 232 rooms of varying types. The central location means it is ideally set up to focus on the booming Meetings and Events sector where it will have 1200 Sq metres of events space including 11 meting rooms and a ballroom capable of hosting 450 people. The hotel will have a rooftop bar and restaurant (hopefully without chalga music) and will additionally have a 1600 sq spa and fitness centre. What is perhaps less well known is that when the construction of this building began pre-covid, it was slated to be a Courtyard by Marriott, a rank slightly below the mainline Marriott Hotel brand which the hotel now finds itself.

So, its all change locally and no doubt more branded hotels will follow in the years to come. The hotel industry is extremely resilient and with record high room rates, investors seem not to be losing faith in it nor in the wider hospitality industry.

Mark Thomas

Commercial Logic

It might be said that having a commercial aptitude is something you are either born with or not, or at least be born with the ability to acquire the skill set. If you aren’t born with it, then you can always enter politics as a means to reach the end, or if that fails, enter the public service. It seems that many Italian regions have developed a commercial aptitude and realised that working with rather than working against business’s that try and bring wealth to a region is a far better approach than simply trying to tax them.  To that end, Italy will be Ryanair’s busiest international market this winter where it will have 3,855 weekly departures.

The airline is already the dominant carrier in terms of passenger numbers in Italy with 62.2 million passengers carried in 2025. This is way ahead of national carrier ITA who carried 16 million followed by Wizz with 15.2 million. The actual total of international passengers was 157.2 million which means Ryanair has around 40% market share.

Better to “work with rather than against” is a more simplistic way of putting it and the regions that play ball are the ones that benefit directly. An obvious conclusion, though not always to some.

Awards Served on a Plate

There are few better demonstrations of snobbery than to talk about the Michelin starred restaurant you visited the “’other day’. The concept of a Michelin guide was started in 1900 by two French brothers, Andre and Edouard Michelin with the initial idea being to encourage people to travel and thus boost their core business of selling car tyres! The guide offered drivers maps and recommended places to eat and stay before it evolved into one of the best-known restaurant guides. Australia had never bothered with such snobbery and eschewed getting involved with such guides; until now.

The State of South Australia paid for incognito inspectors to visit the states restaurants which is why the award of Michelin Stars is unique in Australia to the state of South Australia with 11 restaurants receiving the recognition; one receiving two stars and 10 obtaining the one-star rating, itself no small achievement. A further 70 other restaurants also receive a mention, often through the Bib Gourmand category which highlights restaurants offering good food at more moderate prices.

The South Australia government decided to go it alone after the national government appeared luke warm in paying for the country’s inclusion.  New Zealand was the first Oceanic country to feature in the guide after it paid 3.5 m US Dollars over three years for its inclusion. The intent by South Australia to use the recognition these restaurants attained to attract more tourists. The region already has a well-established and successful wine industry and wine tasting and food typically go hand in hand.

TAP ing to the End

Not for the first time have the Germans got the better of France as Lufthansa defeated Air France-KLM to purchase 44.9% of Portuguese national airline TAP. The two airline groups were the only two bidders although the deal still requires the nod from the European Union. The Portuguese government will retain a majority stake with a further 5% of the shares “’held aside”.

The deal was won with a 1.2 billion Euro bid which apparently outbid Air France – KLM’s offer by 16%. Part of the offer included ongoing expansion of flights to and from Lisbon, Porto, the Azores and Madeira, with Lufthansa committing to increase the fleet by 117 planes by 2035. Lufthansa has also pledged to increase TAP’s operating profit by 8-10% between 2028-2030.

Just how this impacts Lufthansa’s own financial challenges remains to be seen as analysts suggest that taking on a funding intensive airline at this time is counter intuitive. Lufthansa as a group makes profits but the mainline “’Lufthansa Deutsche Airlines’” is said to lose money annually. Time will tell how successful or not this acquisition is.

Blame the Tourists

Spain, the world’s second most visited country after France, will impose a 10% VAT on tourism rentals with effect from Dec 1st 2026. The measures come as continued issues are raised with Spain’s housing shortages, often (though not always) fuelled by the proliferation of short-term tourism rentals.

According to the Spanish government, Tourist accommodation counts for 10% of the country’s rental market. The country received 12.3 million visitors in August alone which was a 9,2% increase year on year with some 70,4 million tourists arriving in the first 8 months of the year.

Whilst tourism suits the narrative as being the one to blame for such housing shortages, the tourism industry accounts for 12.6% of the country’s GDP so a careful tightrope has to be walked by those in power. The balance is not aided by the fact that the Spanish population has grown by around 7% in the past decade which equates to over 3 million extra people, many of whom are non-native, a point often (conveniently) over looked as being too politically sensitive.

The Trend Continues

With regular monotony we make mention of the Bulgarian tourism statistics and how they are stacking up this year. Historically this would barely get a mention, but with inflation rampant on a local level – despite claims otherwise – the smart money was on next year being a challenge for the local tourism sector. It appears that may well be the case based on this year’s trend.

The data for August follows previous months: visitor numbers down (3.9%), revenue up. The bottom line being that higher prices keep the Ministry of Finance happy, but that may well be a short-lived experience.

Of the 384.5 million Euro income for August, 270.5 million came from non-residents of Bulgaria. Its this market which will decide the success or failure of next year’s tourism product; both winter and summer and it may well be that a perfect storm is approaching. The high(er) prices seen across the country nowadays puts the tourism product firmly in line with European rivals and even behind it, if you factor in the service standards. With geopolitical strains created by unstable leaders  in control of major players  and the rising unemployment levels created by AI et al, opening anything connected with tourism may be a risk worth putting on hold for a while.

When you can’t see the Apples

Aside of making assumptions and presumptions connected with whatever data is made available to us (see “The Trend Continues”), more opinions can arise when the data connected with airline activity in and out of Bulgaria is looked at. At the same time, it’s always important to compare apples with apples as this is the only true means to obtain and clear and concise picture. Though it may also be true that you can’t always see the apples for other fruits! Cryptic?

Firstly, year on year the IATA (International Air Transport Association) figures show that revenue from tickets sales locally is up by a healthy 7.35%. The number of tickets issued though is down 3.31%. so, what we have is a pattern almost identical to the Tourism pattern in the country. However, unlike those business’s involved in the travel and tourism sector who worry about the longer-term impact of decreasing footfall, the airlines really don’t care what their load factors are if they are able to sell tickets at a higher cost and thus gain increased revenues; i.e higher cost per passenger. Of course, the expenses have to be considered but just as in covid times, when hotels really didn’t want full rooms and even closed of parts of the hotel as this would increase their total cost of operation through extra staff costs etc, less people on a plane clearly doesn’t mean less revenue but it does mean less weight and thus less fuel usage.

Airlines are good at both proclaiming record numbers as if to appease shareholders yet at the same time they cry wolf all too frequently about the “cost of operations”. You can’t have it both ways.

The caveat in all this with the data for Bulgaria is that IATA airlines e.g. Lufthansa Group, Turkish, Bulgaria Air etc, account for less than 50% of the total passenger market. Low-Cost airlines like Wizz and Ryanair are not part of the measure and thus drawing any conclusion from IATA figures alone is pointless! These latter two airlines who transport  circa 60% of all local passengers  have an ever increasing presence and ever increasing importance on the local market and this is only likely to continue.

Terminal 3 Work Commences

Work has begun on the development of the new Terminal 3 at Sofia Airport. This initial phase is centred on the re-vamping of the transportation infrastructure with the creation of a new bus transportation centre with 14 berths in front of Terminal 2 and the relocation of the current underground infrastructure which is not only vague but is also difficult to picture! Another change will be the relocation of the taxi rank from its current location to one immediately in front of the terminal building.

This initial phase is designed to ensure that the movement and flow of people to the airport is not impacted when the serious building work commences on the actual new Terminal 3 building which will be situated to the left of the current Terminal 2 building. Work on this first phase is expected to be completed by the end of March 2027.

Choose your Friends Wisely

Easyjet has signed a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink to offer wi-fi on its fleet of A320 and A321 aircraft. The roll out will begin in early 2027 and is expected to be complete in around one year.

The deal with EasyJet follows a tasty spat between Musk and Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary after Ryanair rejected the chance to use Starlink technology. Musk called O’Leary “’insufferable and an idiot” whilst O’Leary suggested that if Musk wishes to call him an idiot he is free to do so and he isn’t the first and won’t be the last! He also thanked Musk for the free publicity.

One hopes that in todays heightened geopolitical landscape, friends won’t turn off the wi-fi supply to other friends as was the case recently with Ukraine.

The Rest is Marketing

There seems to be no limits to the gullibility of people who almost seem to lose control of their senses when the words “’green and sustainability” are used and even more so when they are used  together. The fact that some people would be prepared to pay more for an airline seat than the person next to them simply to say they booked it the green way may well be looked back on in history as being the ultimate in hoodwinking by airlines.

The EU, to their credit, whilst permanently being behind the curve, have acted in their attempt to tighten up on airlines ‘’Green Washing’ attempts and this has prompted the Lufthansa Group to re name their “(cough) ‘Green Fares” to (cough cough) “’Impact Fares”!  It’s hard for anyone sane of mind to not roll their eyes but that’s the latest move in the game of global pretend that ultimately helps keep the ink on the P/L account black as opposed to red.

The EU acted after it introduced its Directive on Empowering Consumers for Green Transition (ECGT) which in layman’s terms is intended to prevent consumers from misleading sustainability claims. Put into a nutshell, anyone can claim anything about its own sustainability efforts that are un-measurable. Business’s have to avoid using the word green (finally) and “’eco-friendly’” without recognised certification and such certification is at best, spurious.

As a footnote, 5 million people already seem to qualify for the criteria mentioned in the first line of the first paragraph on this article according to Lufthansa.

The Less we Know

The ability to travel huge distances in a relatively short time has made life easier for those with the travel bug (if you pardon the expression). What many people will not consider though is the fact that diseases and virus carrying bugs can thus travel in just the same way using the same vehicles of transportation. This indeed is how, during the traditional “’flu’” season, the initial outbreaks of this years “type” usually originates in Asia and is then tracked across to Europe; think Covid. The pattern of travel following the same pattern has it has done for countless years previously. As we saw with Covid, the alarm bells were quickly sounded, perhaps too quickly for some, as the population was warned of the immediate threats the virus brought. A question that people seldom bother asking is how frequently ‘’dangerous” viruses arrive on our doorstep but we are not warned about them?

A number of people died with more hospitalised after an infected mosquito seemingly found its way to Frankfurt Airport. Some of the people infected had neither been to Frankfurt Airport nor travelled recently, but had somehow been bitten by an infected mosquito.

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