Patrick Bontinck
President of BHA
Brussels Hotel Association

Most of the hoteliers have re-defined their client market segmentation to offset the downturn in business from the individual business travellers and seminars, and by going strongly for the tourist market in order to reduce the crisis impact to a minimum: promotion via internet sites, last minute actions.

We do not believe that the world of MICE will change dramatically, because even with the tentative measures taken such as video-conferencing, web meetings, etc nothing has ever replaced human contact. But we also have noticed that companies hesitate more and more to choose exotic destinations for their meetings due mostly to the great cost associated with such destinations, therefore we feel that Brussels could come out a winner especially as we can propose re-vitalized venues such as Tour & Taxis or Square and this coupled to a hotel offer of high quality but at more competitive rates than other European cities.

As mentioned before we have noticed a tendency to shorter trips and less long haul destinations and sharper rates, however in the case of Brussels our rates are already so sharp that I do not see there is much space for further negotiations.

Most of our members are ‘battling’ to keep employment at pre-crisis level. However, with the downturn in revenue this becomes an uphill struggle. Unfortunately, although many contacts were made by the Brussels Hotels Association, nobody seems to hear the message that it is necessary to obtain the ‘economic unemployment’ (chômage économique) for employees, in order to maintain the employment levels for the long term, because, even if the situation gets better, we will not get back to the 2007 level for another 2 years. It is therefore of the utmost importance for the hotels to keep their staff during this period and that is the only way!
 
It is very difficult to look at the future for the moment, we hope that the month of April is the end of the tunnel: bookings are down by 35%, for the months of May and June we look at 10 to 15% . July and August, as usual are difficult to predict but we do hope for stabilization by September. It is too early to speak of an upturn though; we just hope that after April the worst is behind us!

The crisis should be the opportunity for the whole tourism industry to re-think – together – the best way to promote and sell our region so that by the end of the crisis we are more performing in promoting ourselves!