Covid19 live blog roundup: Of solidarity, ongoing hotel constructions and planning recovery

The TOPHOTELNEWS Live Blog covers the most important stories around Covid19 and the hotel industry. Image by Heiko Olschewski from Pixabay

We summarise updates shared on the TOPHOTELNEWS Covid19 live blog to draw a picture of how the global hotel projects industry is negotiating the ongoing crisis.

The international hospitality industry has been sent into a tailspin with the sudden onslaught of the coronavirus crisis. From lockdowns to travel bans and border closures, hotels, bars and restaurants are having to navigate more uncertain waters than ever before.

TOPHOTELPROJECTS has been tracking in real time the developments within the industry as it reacts to the continuing crisis, and we recap some of the recent activity that has been happening around the world in response to the pandemic, with a particular focus on how the hotel industry is preparing for the easing of restrictions in many countries.

How hospitality is responding to coronavirus

One of the biggest trends across global hospitality sees groups, brands and operators implementing ambitious new health and safety protocols. This represents a key part of wider efforts to engender trust between hoteliers, staff and guests – and some groups are going further still by giving the public an insight into the workings of the hospitality industry generally, as well as more brand-specific activities.

To give just a few examples, AMResorts has upped its cleaning protocols, while Kempinski is heralding a ‘new era of hospitality’ with increased hygiene and sanitation standards, and Radisson Hotel Group has launched new health and safety policies. Meanwhile, Best Western Hotels has launched its From Within series of web chats, where leading industry professionals give their take on the industry.

Elsewhere, two Cendyn surveys have shed light on how Covid19 is affecting hotels; most respondents reported that business has been severely impacted by the coronavirus, but that their hotel has not deployed any new business models to bring in revenues.

Planning for recovery in the Americas

On the blog, we also took a trip to the Caribbean, where Aruba is planning to reopen its borders to encourage tourism back to the country. Tourism is a mainstay of Aruba’s economy, so no doubt it will be important for this sector to recover as quickly as possible.

In Mexico, however, Cancun’s hospitality industry says that it is ready for the recovery to begin, but queries the readiness of many Europeans.

Hotel construction continues in spite of Covid19

It is interesting to see that progress is still being made on many hotel projects around the world. To give just a few examples, the green light has been given to a major development in Glasgow, which will include the construction of The Student Hotel.

Elsewhere, work on the Moxy Hotel at Cologne Bonn Airport continues, and the building of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Bend South in Oregon is due for completion this month. Construction of the Meliá Hotel on the Caribbean island of Trinidad is also still underway.