For this year, the evolution regarding the hotel market is positive, with estimates that the number of guests will increase starting with the second quarter of the year. However, it depends on how the health context evolves.
Calin Ile, president of the Federation of the Hotel Industry in Romania (FIHR), specified that „as we emerge from this medical deadlock, the industry will recover and we will have serious growth starting from April until the end of 2022. We will not reach the 2019 level, but I believe that, compared to the 20 million overnight stays recorded last year, we will be able to grow to 24-25 million, still far from the 30 million recorded in 2019”.
Out of the approximately 1,200 existing hotels nationwide, only 56 companies operating hotels have declared insolvency in the last 2 years, according to data centralized and transmitted by the Trade Register.
The small number of insolvencies, according to Calin Ile, is mainly due to the fact that 2019 was a year with good results, which allowed hoteliers to have financial reserves for the first year of the pandemic.
Ile considers that the last 2 years have been extremely complicated for the hotel industry, especially since state aid was slow to appear. Only last year, in mid-December, the Government began payments related to the state aid scheme for HoReCa. About 1 billion RON should have entered the accounts of entrepreneurs by the end of 2021. „This scheme is a very good one, but let’s not forget that it only refers to the activity in 2020. Today we have compensation received for the losses in 2020. For the year 2021, which is still to be closed from a financial point of view and we do not yet know the results, the state is only discussing with us the extension of this aid scheme, given that at the European level it was decided to extend the support period for the hotel industry until June 30, 2022, because everyone understood that 2021 was not a good year either and must be compensated”, Calin Ile points out.
The Federation of the Hotel Industry in Romania proposed to the Government a HoReCa aid scheme for 2021 similar to the one in 2020, but with small adjustments. For example, to include newly established units, start-ups, or hotels opened in 2020 and 2021 that did not receive any aid.
Financial support is not, however, the only challenge for the industry since the outbreak of the pandemic. Calin Ile also signaled at the end of last year that the tourism industry in Romania lost over 30% of its workforce in just 18 months, a loss that entrepreneurs in the field will find difficult to compensate for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the growth projections for the Romanian hotel industry in 2022?
The industry expects to reach 24-25 million overnight stays, showing significant growth from 2021, though still below the 30 million record of 2019.
Why was the insolvency rate among Romanian hotels so low during the pandemic?
The low insolvency rate is attributed to the strong financial reserves built during the successful 2019 season, which helped businesses survive the initial lockdowns.
What is the biggest non-financial challenge facing the sector?
The most significant challenge is the labor shortage, with the industry losing over 30% of its workforce in the 18 months following the start of the pandemic.