Market Report 2022

Colliers Market Report 2022

103

Hotel Industrial/logistics Retail Residential Of f ice

Shift in business travel patterns? It remains to be seen when the number of hotel guests will return to normal. Mainly among business travellers, demand is mounting for new ways of cross-border col laboration. The focus on reducing the corporate climate footprint to a minimum by travelling less was already high on the pre-coronacrisis agenda and has only grown stronger since. Many businesses have also embraced new technologies, partly to reduce infection risk, partly because digital meet ings have proved to be an efficient and cost-saving alterna tive to physical meetings. Nevertheless, conferences still play an important part in the customer strategies of many businesses as physical events offer obvious networking opportunities that digi tal solutions are unable to match. Several event organis ers have however experimented with hybrid conferences where some participants are physically present whereas others participate online. Longer term, this “new normal” may therefore have a structural impact on MICE-related demand, permanently weakening future hotel demand in this segment. It is therefore imperative that MICE hotels and event organisers proactively rethink the way to facili tate future events and experiences.

Large-scale conferences did take place in 2021. In October, the largest property and investment exhibition in Europe, Expo Real 2021, took place in Munich, Germany, with 19,200 participants from 52 countries, still a far cry from the record-breaking number seen in 2019: 46,700 participants from 76 countries.

Slow recovery in bednights

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

MICE

Tourism

Other

Note: Annual number of bednights (million), hotels in Copenhagen proper. 2021 figures include estimates for November and December. MICE = meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions. Source: Statistics Denmark