The hotel business in the south of Gran Canaria has changed a lot since the 2008 crisis and since mid-2012 it has a lord and lord who has never been seen appearing and nor does he need it because of a meeting of the Gran Canaria Tourist Board that, For that, he already has his slaves. Claudio Boada is the president of Blackstone in Spain, owner of the IFA managed by Lopesan, Barceló Margaritas or Dunas with no less than Maspalomas 7.102 beds.
Boada, a lover of tourism in the Canary Islands whom he has always supported since the former Bank of Bilbao or when he was president of Holcim in Spain, is the one who has prevented the bankruptcy of many companies in the south of Gran Canaria. This industrial engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and MBA from the University of Southern California, was responsible for the defunct Lehman Brothers in Spain and Portugal, where he also held the presidency until 2004. He was President of Círculo de Empresarios, from 2004 to 2012. He was also president of Holcim Spain and president of Atlas Capital Private Equity, president of the advisory board of AON Spain, member of the board of Prisa and from 2007 to 2016 he was also main advisor of HSBC for Spain and Portugal, as well as a member of the European Bank Advisory Board. He has belonged to the Governing Council of the Association for the Progress of APD Management, a position he left for statutory reasons.
Blackstone has taken aging companies and taken out the checkbook in Spain to add 25.000 million euros in products such as 40.000 toxic Catalunya Caixa mortgages for 3.615 million euros. With Banco Sabadell he created HIP, which he endowed with 630 million euros, the Socimi Hispania, for 2.000 million and even part of the Holiday World business in Maspalomas to Cirsa. Thank you Boada, the hotel business in the south of Gran Canaria has not collapsed in businesses like Grupo Dunas. In fact, managers continue to run the business as long as it does not fall below a certain performance.
Lopesan, thus, placed all the money for three-star hotels at the bottom of Boada a few years ago. "The company's strategy involves doubling its beds within five years, in two formats, own construction and bed management. Part of the Group's investment roadmap involves losing mid- and mid-level beds. low, 3 and 4 stars low, and gain presence in 5 stars and 5 stars plus," said the CEO of Lopesan, Francisco López, in 2020.
Blackstone dominates 2.592.230 hotel nights in the south of Gran Canaria in the 210 rooms of the Corallium (ex IFA Beach), 241 rooms of the Dunas Don Gregory, the Dunamar ex IFA Continental of 391 rooms or 410 of the Catarina, 395 rooms IFA Interclub , 484 rooms at the Barceló Occidental Margaritas, 436 rooms at the Dunas Mirador Maspalomas or the 511 rooms at the Dunas Suites & Maspalomas.
The volume of investment allocated to the renovation and construction of new hotels will exceed 2.850 million euros during 2022, according to the H Refcon 2021 report published by Colliers, which adds that the Canary Islands leads the investment made in 2021 with 195 million. The document highlights that this amount will be used to renovate or build 296 establishments and 33.887 rooms, which is "much higher than in other years" and includes both the investment originally planned for the year and that accumulated by the completion of the projects. paralyzed for the last two years.
Of this total planned volume, 80% will be allocated to the construction of new establishments, which confirms the momentum in the construction of new hotels, significantly paralyzed by the health crisis. This trend towards the qualification of the hotel staff is expected to continue in the medium term, as demonstrated by the figure relating to projects publicly announced beyond 2022 which, added to the volume planned for next year, is close to the 5.500 billion euros.
Regarding the degree of intervention, there is a clear predominance of major reforms this last year. Thus, the prominence of new construction and the conversion of buildings for hotel use stands out, which concentrates 57% of the total volume invested in 2021, that is, 674 million euros in 96 establishments and 6.245 rooms. The second most representative component of this investment has been comprehensive renovations, which accumulate 33% (45 hotels, 5.175 rooms), while partial and specific renovations (8% and 2%, respectively) accumulate lower levels of investment, although They cover 44% of the total updated rooms (8.850 rooms).