To take flight once more

The hotel industry in Europe was hit particularly hard by the global crisis, with the RevPAR index plunging by much as 35 pct across the continent. Things have, however, already started to change  Starting a conference by citing recent reports on the condition of the hotel industry in Europe might not be the best idea when you have a crowd of participants who would rather listen to some postive news. The good thing about this approach, however, is that once you have got the scary numbers out of the way you can end the conference with something more promising. After an extremely challenging 2009, this year the bad mood 
– or a more realistic one, if you like – has not gone away.According to one study, only 2 pct of industry players in Europe believe that the hotel sector is set for growth in 2010. By comparison, in 2009 the figure was 37 pct. According to the