CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism and HOSBEC, the Benidorm, Costa Blanca and València region hotel business association, are offering the hotel industry a specific line of finance worth 500 million euros with the aim of boosting and stimulating the hotel and tourist sector in the region over the next two years. This investment, made available to the association's 252 members with 82,000 beds in the València region, can be expanded if applications for loans from the businesses exceed the initial amount. Among other things, this line of credit covers the finance for new waves of modernisation in the region's hotels, which offer an ongoing example of adaptation, quality and specialisation to secure their position on the market.
The signing of the agreement, which took place at the HOSBEC offices in Benidorm, was attended by the CaixaBank business banking manager in the València region, Bernardino Gosp, and the president of HOSBEC, Antonio Mayor.
CaixaBank, the leading bank in the tourist industry, ended the financial year 2017 by granting 1,500 million in credit to the hotel sector, a figure that shows just how well the industry is performing at the moment. CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism forecasts 20% growth in credit in the sector in its first year of operation. Two out of every three hotels are currently CaixaBank clients, accounting for over 66% of the total.
A new model of proximity to hotel companies and businesses
The new CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism line of business, which was officially presented at Fitur, was set up to cement CaixaBank's leadership on the tourist market through a new model of proximity to hotel companies and businesses. In this way, CaixaBank, headed by Jordi Gual and run by the managing director Gonzalo Gortázar, makes a commitment to regional specialisation and backing the commercial activity of the hotel industry through a solid network of experts specialised in this sector.
CaixaBank is the leading bank in the tourist industry, with a portfolio of over 14,000 clients and a turnover of 5,000 million euros. Thus, CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism offers the hotel market a distinctive range of products and services and a solid network of experts specialised in this sector to help the tourist industry to boost the profitability of its business and simplify its everyday operations.
The creation of new products and services specific to the hotel market complements the bank's specialisation in the industry, taking into account the needs of its different sub-sectors: hotels, holiday accommodation and campsites.
One of the principal services CaixaBank offers hotels, especially family establishments and medium-sized chains, is the possibility of advances on payment for their room bookings. As well as minimising the commercial risk of non-payment by clients, this service, known as tourist factoring, represents a financial injection that hotels can use to prepare for the coming season on good terms or invest in improving their facilities. One of CaixaBank's goals is to provide a rapid response to the needs of both the hotel segment and its suppliers, who have very specific demands for cashflow financing due to the seasonal nature of their business and the origins of their clients.
The leading bank in the tourist industry
In 2008, the bank set up a business area devoted solely to this sector, making CaixaBank the first bank in Spain to establish a department specialising in this segment.
In 2017 the bank granted more than 1,500 million euros in loans to the hotel industry, in part the result of the agreement with CEHAT, the confederation of hotels and holiday accommodation, which has remained in force since 2011.
Over these years, CaixaBank has reinforced its role among hotel companies and businesses by signing agreements with different associations and organisations, especially with CEHAT, as well as attending the most important tourist trade fairs globally, including Fitur and the World Travel Market, the Exceltur forum and the annual Hosteltur forum, a key date in the industry.
The bank chosen by businesses
In 2017 CaixaBank consolidated its position as the first-choice bank for businesses. According to a study of market share by FRS Inmark, 48% of Spanish businesses with a turnover of between 1 and 100 million euros are CaixaBank clients.
CaixaBank has a specialised network made up of 116 branches distributed in all Spanish autonomous communities, employing 1,245 highly specialised experts who receive constant training and have earned a solid reputation for advice to businesses.
About HOSBEC
HOSBEC is the leading tourist business association in the València region and one of the most important internationally. It currently includes over 250 hotel, holiday accommodation and ancillary service businesses, offering over 82,000 beds. It works at regional level and now has a major presence in the city and province of València and in the province of Castellón.
HOSBEC always stresses the extraordinary investing spirit of the hotel and tourist businesses of Benidorm, the Costa Blanca and the València region. One of its strengths is without a doubt the constant adaptation, updating, modernisation and specialisation of the whole range of accommodation and leisure that enables a product as mature as this to retain its leadership on the market both nationally and internationally.
Executives are well aware that only through this constant drive to improve can they compete on a market as globalised and competitive as today's, and the support of the financial sector, in the form of the agreement signed today with CaixaBank, is the perfect complement to this drive to innovate.
