“If the product improves, its price will continue to rise”
Amancio López Seijas (Chantada, Lugo; 1955) It champions the values of the National Congress of Family Business that Felipe VI himself identified as roots and external projection during the inauguration of the event held this week. Born in a small Galician village, López Seijas was a waiter before forming Hotusathe group with the most establishments in Spain – where it has just extended the Eurostars seal with the purchase of nine Silken hotels -. To review the current situation in the sector and analyze the evolution of his business, the also vice president of Exceltur attends to Economic Information after speaking in congress.
In the sector there is a slowdown, some prefer to call it normalization, of tourism growth. How do you see it?
I project a slowdown. I think it is growing less and the important thing is whether that growth can at least equal the growth in costs, because that is also very important. What we have is that, At some point, obviously sooner or later, there will be a crisis. We just hope that when that happens, it will be a soft landing. But we must be aware: it will not always grow indefinitely. However, the slowdown is uneven and I believe that the holiday market is still holding its own.
Do you consider the prices of Spanish hotels competitive?
Prices in Spain are lower than in most Western European countries. There has been growth, especially in the luxury and mid-luxury categories, but it is also true that there has been a very significant increase in costs, including labor, which has been greatly affected. At this conference, it was the president of the Family Business Institute Ignacio Rivera himself who said that the hours worked have fallen by 8 or 9%. Logically, this has an impact on productivity.
But what is also happening is that there is a great transformation of hotels. There are many old hotels that are being modernized. Three-star hotels are becoming four-star, and that is the most important thing: a significant transformation is being made. Spain, for some time now, has not been able to compete on costs; You have to do it for quality and product. And I think that, in that sense, it is going in the right direction. I would even dare to say that it could go a little faster, and we have to accept it.
And what is the advantage of this model?
That a country with so much demand for tourism, fortunately, knows that any destination has a limited number of visitors. I don’t know what it is, nor am I going to say how much, but certainly not infinite. And of course, the question is: if we are going to have a limited number of visitors, what kind of people are we interested in? We are interested in five-star boutique hotels, a client with high consumer power, who goes to good restaurants, who buys in stores… Or we are interested in another type of tourism, which in my opinion is the one that generates conflict, that of tourist housing, which is what causes tourismphobia. I think that Spain is evolving in the right direction and that this type of tourism will have to be replaced. If the product improves, prices will also continue to increase. Compared to certain European cities, there is still a lot of room.
Do you see the infrastructure prepared to receive 100 million tourists a year?
Spain has a series of competitive advantages for tourism. The first is security – on the streets and in hospitals. The second is magnificent infrastructure. Now, because of the growth that has occurred, I would say that they are not saturated, but they will not be very far away, especially the airports. I think there is already a plan in that regard, and let’s hope it arrives on time. But it is one of the strong points of Spain. I would dare to say that no other country has an airport infrastructure like ours, nor a company like Aena, with its knowledge, experience and management efficiency.
“We will grow between 8 and 10% in sales, and between 10 and 15% in EBITDA”
It said goodbye to 2024 with record results (1,560 million in revenue and 242 million in EBITDA). How do you plan to close this year?
We will grow, not at the same rate, but we will grow between 8 and 10% in sales, and between 10 and 15% in ebitdamore or less.
It has carried out one of the operations of the year with the purchase of nine Silken hotels in Spain. What does this operation mean for the group?
They are two steps forward. They are hotels strategically located in places where they fit very well; products that we feel comfortable with, that allow us to increase our assets. We are very happy with this operation.
After this purchase, are you in a moment of expansion or containment?
We continue our pace of growth, which sometimes accelerates in times of opportunity and sometimes slows down, but we maintain a line very similar to always – except for the pandemic years. It will depend a lot on the opportunities that may arise, and those are difficult to foresee. We feel very comfortable especially in the European market, which we know very well, and also in the North American market, where we have begun to enter and it seems to us to be a stable place, with legal security. We will also continue to grow in North Africa and Latin America.
The Eurostars portfolio brings together 294 hotels, it would be symbolic to reach 300 this year…
We have three planned for the short term. Barring some new circumstance, we won’t reach 300, but we won’t be far away. We have some very interesting ones: in Rotterdam, in Valladolid and in Malaga, three five-star hotels.
His company has unleashed a buying spree in the United States this year. What potential do you see in this market?
It is a very complicated and competitive market, but with the type of hotel in which we feel comfortable, we have to enter and learn to compete there. You can only learn to compete by being there. We are going to modulate it a lot, but we are going to try.
Do you study new markets?
There are always opportunities, but it is not something we are imperatively looking for. If one arises, we see it.
Are you exploring alliances or acquisitions to grow inorganically?
No. If something came out, we would see it, but it is not a path we have followed so far. We have grown with independent hotels, not buying other companies. It is not something that I rule out, but it is not on the planned roadmap.
