The luxury hotels in Romania faced an abrupt drop in their turnover in 2020, when their aggregated revenues halved due to the pandemic, according to estimates of the market research company Euromonitor.

The firm estimated the total turnover on the local luxury hotel segment at RON 57 million (EUR 12 mln) in 2020, according to Ziarul Financiar. However, while the dynamic may be accurate, the turnover value seems too low, given that just the company that operates the JW Marriott Grand Hotel in Bucharest had a turnover of RON 138 mln (EUR 28 mln) in 2019, according to public data.

The local luxury hotel market has been considerably hit by the pandemic, as it mainly focuses on business tourism - the hardest-hit tourism segment, according to Euromonitor. Estimates for this sector show a slower recovery compared to other types of tourism, such as leisure.

Luxury hotels have suffered both from the lack of tourists and lack of events that could no longer take place in 2020.

To address this situation, the hotel owners need to invest in new services. Luxury hotels must also comply with sanitary measures to organize events and conferences in the safest conditions.

Romania has only 36 five-star hotels, two more than in the previous year, and almost half of them are in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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