LOUVRE HOTELS GROUP: We Aim to be a Strong Player in Albania, to Sign Multiple Contracts

BY RUDINA HOXHA & JOSE PINTO

TRAILBLAZING MAGAZINE meets with Adam Konieczny, Louvre Hotels Group’s Development Director for Europe to reveal some of the many exciting projects this major player in the global industry has in the pipeline for Albania. With over 1,175 hotels for a total capacity of more than 100,000 guest rooms in 51 countries, Louvre Hotels Group operates a complete portfolio of 6 brands ranging from 1 to 5 stars: Première Classe, Campanile, Kyriad, Tulip Inn, Golden Tulip and Royal Tulip. Louvre Hotels Group is owned by Jin Jiang International Holdings Co. Ltd., one of China’s leading travel and tourism conglomerates and fifth hotels group worldwide. In this exclusive interview, Konieczny said that he visited Albania for the first time on July 2020 after he heard positive things about this country in one of the prestigious tourism forums. Now Louvre Hotels Group’s soft brand Hôtels & Préférence has already signed two contracts for existing hotels in Albania. These hotels are already part of Louvre Hotels Group’s network. “This was for us our first step into the Albanian market. We are looking at different parts of the country,” Konieczny says. He is quite positive because the market is at a very interesting stage now. “We decided to make a push on the market and are looking for opportunities in resorts and city hotels. There is a big opportunity on resorts since the biggest advantage of Albania is its coastline. And the coastline is long enough so we can be present in different places with our hotels, especially 4* and 5*, Golden Tulip and Royal Tulip,” he underlined in this interview.

Full interview below:

Can you make an introduction of Louvre Hotel Group?

Louvre Hotels is a Group that originated in the 70s by the Taittinger Family – the champagne producers. At the very beginning, they were focused in midscale and economy hotels. Our first brand was Campanile. Then, the Group developed organically until 2005 when it was taken over by Starwood Capital, the US Fund. Four years later, in 2009, Starwood Capital bought Golden Tulip, a group with Dutch roots and merged it into Louvre Hotels Group. For many years, Golden Tulip had a strategic partnership with KLM Airlines. That’s why when Starwood Capital took over Golden Tulip, they had a very good global coverage since the idea was that they would open hotels in every destination where KLM was flying. So, since 2010, we are the owners of the brands. We have brands in all the segments of the market, so from 1 star to 5 stars.

But what happens next? In 2015, we were fully acquired by Jin Jiang which is the biggest group in China as well as a big tourism holding. Before the pandemic started in

2019, every third person traveling abroad from China used the services of our group. In other words, it is a really integrated holding. What Jin Jiang decided to do was to promote our brands in China. We have introduced our brands Campanile, Kyriad and Golden Tulip on the Chinese market. At the moment, we are the biggest franchisor in China. So, as part of Jin Jiang, we are now part of the second biggest group in the world, but since we have a very strong secured pipeline, it is only a matter of time until we become the biggest. We have a very strong pipeline of our Louvre Hotels Group brands. In Europe we have been present in most major markets for years now. France is our largest market coming from our origins, but we have properties throughout the continent. Looking at Central Eastern Europe, Poland has the biggest platform since we have our own hotels, we have management contracts, we have franchise. There is a regional office in Warsaw to manage our network in the area. We also have properties under franchise in Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Cyprus to name a few.

What brought you to Albania?

I heard a lot of positive things about Albania during different events which I was attending. First time it was at the Adria Hotel Forum which is held in Zagreb. There was a panel on Albania at this event. I met people from Albania at this event. I met people from Albania

who invited me to visit the country and see the market and its opportunities. I was delayed because of the pandemic but I managed to come in July 2020 for the first time in Albania. I am quite positive because the market is at a very interesting stage now. We decided to make a push on the market and are looking for opportunities in resorts and city hotels. There is a big opportunity on resorts since the biggest advantage of Albania is its coastline. And the coastline is long enough so we can be present in different places with our hotels, especially 4* and 5*, Golden Tulip and Royal Tulip.

So Louvre Hotels Group is eyeing Albania?

Our soft brand Hôtels & Préférence has already signed two contracts for existing hotels in Albania. These hotels are already part of or network. This was for us our first step into the Albanian market. We are looking at different parts of the country, Durres city is one hotspot where we will have a potential project. Then our first step into in the south the area between Vlora and the Albanian Saranda. We are also working on a big Royal Tulip resort. These are the two most advanced projects we are working on. As for Tirana, we also have some plans to introduce more products.

The midscale brand Campanile is suitable for the cities. In the Albanian capital, we intend to bring Tulip Residences (an extended-stay concept) because I think this is very good for the business travelers. For example, business travelers can use it from Monday to Friday and during the weekends, we can offer the room to families.

So, it is a very interesting product to develop.

We also have a hostel concept which is called “Hosho”. This was something completely new. We just opened the first one in Paris. I think it is a fantastic product. Definitely I see a place for this product in Tirana as well.

The advantage of this product is that it can be easily converted from a small office building, let’s say, around 2000 square meters, we can have even up to 240 beds in different

configurations of rooms. There are some 4-bed rooms, 6-bed rooms and 8-bed rooms.

We are also innovators in another concept: placing two or three brands in the same building with one common parking, one kitchen, one common back of house and one management team. In Warsaw, for example, we have already developed a complex where there are three brands at the same time: Première Classe , Campanile and Golden Tulip. Altogether 460 rooms.

What are the further steps regarding Albania, Balkans? What pillars do you intend to embrace from now on?

I think we will be able to be announce a couple of projects later this year. Our strategy is to sign multiple contracts in Albania. We want to be a strong player here. That’s why I am spending time in Albania. Even the Louvre here” Hotels Group’s Chief Development Officer, Max Cergneux, visited Albania this year. We are very confident that this is a market

where we want to be and we are putting a lot of focus here.

At the moment, we are also looking at projects on the neighboring countries such as Montenegro and Greece. We aim to further increase our presence in the Balkan countries where we already are present such as Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria.

We see lately an increased interest of the Polish tourists in Albania. Is this also connected to the new plans of Louvre Hotels Group in Albania?

Yes, this is a big advantage for us because we have a strong presence in Poland. So, Polish customers know our brand. We will be able to bring even more Polish customers when we have hotels with our brands in Albania. In Poland we are ranked second as a hotel group. I see many Polish tourists who want to come and spend time in Albania and even investing in properties.

The link between Poland and Albania is very strong. There is a direct flight not only between Tirana and Warsaw but also other Polish cities. We are looking forward to the future opening of Vlora airport.

In the future, we see that the market will be growing, and more and more Polish tourists are coming to Albania. Our intention is to make available hotels for people throughout the year, not only during summer. Polish customers like to travel even out of season especially in the south of Europe. More guests are coming from Western Europe where we are very strong like in France, Germany or Netherlands.

How do you deem the latest developments in Albania and how do you perceive Louvre Hotels Group among the many competitors which are in Albania? This is a trend which happened in other countries before. The question is: “what differentiates us?”

We offer to the investors much more flexibility because we are a true European hotel group and now with a Chinese owner. In terms of concept, our brands, like Royal Tulip and Golden Tulip, are easier to convert and this will give us the possibility to rebrand some of the existing hotels and connect to our network. Because we have brands in all the segments of the market, we can find a solution for many hotels. So, we don’t need to focus on the new developments but also on existing hotels. During the last visit in Albania, I noticed some new hotels which can be rebranded by us and can get access to our global distribution system.