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Ukraine has a great potential for development of budget, economy and midscale hotels that precisely meet the needs of both domestic travellers and a wide audience of foreign visitors, and can contribute to the development of mass tourism in Ukraine. Such a point of view reached participants of the annual UREC Hospitality Forum 2012, held on 27 September at the President Hotel.
The organizer of the Forum was Ukrainian Real Estate Club, the branch organization in the Ukrainian real estate market. General partner for the second year in a row was ArtBuild Hotel Group, one of the first in Ukraine companies, specializing in the hospitality consulting and fee-development.
By the number of hotels ranging from one to three stars Ukraine has one of the lowest places in Europe, while they (along with the development of infrastructure) may attract to the country such broad categories of foreign tourists as students, pensioners and the middle class. At the end of 2011, according to ArtBuild Hotel Group, provision of Kiev hotel rooms was 3.2 per thousand habitant, while for Berlin the figure was 16.8, for Warsaw - 7.5, and for Bucharest - 5,2. Along with this in the Ukrainian capital city the emphasis is made on the development of the «expensive» high-end hotel projects, rather than hotels of middle and lower-price segment. Thus, in the structure of the new room stock of the capital, built after 2000, budget and economy segments are at 14%, while the luxury - 25%.
Many experts say that the further development of the luxury hotel category will lead to over-saturation of the market and fierce price competition. In the coming years, the most significant growth is expected in the upscale segment and midscale. Thus, according to the company ArtBuild Hotel Group, as for September 2012 midscale segment has increased by 94.6%. By year-end, based on the announced projects, this segment will grow by 123%. Total room stock in the category of upscale, assuming all announced projects by 2015, a 300% increase.
As for the budget segment and the economy, nowadays they are the least developed and are in sight of the key players. According to Aleksei Evchenko, managing partner at ArtBuild Hotel Group, «despite the fact that the general room stock in Kiev economy segment is nominally the most numerous (43%), in the capital represented only one modern high quality hotel in this class under the international hotel operator (Ibis). In the budget segment in Kiev there is no international brands. Therefore, the development of hotel projects in these segments is the most relevant».
In addition to the prospects of the industry and the strategic plans of hotel chains in Ukraine, during the discussion the experts discussed the recruitment of professional staff in all phases of project planning and design facility, building standards and the necessary technical requirements for the construction of the hotel.
With their professional opinion in the panel discussion will share Michael Widmann, PKF hotelexperts; Yuriy Krivosheya, Toronto-Kiev; Vladimir Goraschenko, Double W; Aron Libinson, IHG; Oleg Salmin, 21 Century; Irina Sidletskaya, Premier International; Irina Pshennaya, Vertex Hotel Group; Scott Antel, DLA Piper Rus Limited, Christophe Piffaretti, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International and others. Moderators of event will be Aleksei Evchenko and Daron Rose, Managing Partners of ArtBuild Hotel Group.
Photo Report on the outcome event
