Accor’s Q1 sales rise 8% as Middle-East, Africa and Asia Pacific demand picks up

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Europe’s biggest hotel group Accor reported an 8% rise in first quarter revenue on Thursday, with the Middle-East, Africa and Asia pacific regions recording high growth.

The operator of brands including Ibis and Novotel said revenue in the first three months of the year rose to EUR1.24bn ($1.33bn) from EUR1.14bn in the same period of 2023.

Global tourism is set to fully recover from the pandemic in 2024 as international tourist arrivals will likely be 2% more numerous than in 2019, the United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation said in January.

Accor registers rise in room revenue

Accor’s revenue per available room (RevPAR), one of the industry’s main performance gauges, rose 7.6 per cent to EUR66 in the quarter.

The increase was more pronounced in midscale, upscale and economy hotels in the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, where it grew by 12 per cent on the back of bookings in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan and the recovery of tourism in Singapore and Thailand.

Sales in France, which account for 44 per cent of the group’s room revenue in the Europe and North Africa region, benefited from a growing number of events, Accor added.

Europe’s largest hotel group expects major international sporting events this year, such as the Paris Olympics and the Euro 2024 soccer tournament, to boost its revenues and RevPAR.

Accor, which opened 53 hotels in the period, also confirmed its mid-term forecast, notably a yearly RevPAR growth of 3-4 per cent as well as a global shareholder return of EUR3bn between 2023-2027.

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