Business at select Barcelona hotels has plunged roughly 25%, reports STR, citing negative impact from the recent cancellation of this month's Mobile World Congress (MWC) event.
Mobile network trade group GSMA announced on Feb. 12 that it would be scrapping plans for MWC Barcelona 2020, which was set to run Feb. 24 to 27. In a statement, GSMA CEO John Hoffman attributed the cancellation to "global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances."
According to STR, Barcelona's hotel business on the books for Feb. 24, 25, 26 and 27 dropped 20%, 26%, 27% and 30%, respectively, after GSMA made its announcement.
"These numbers provide a strong indication of the bookings impact for hotels in Barcelona," said Steven Cote, product manager for Forward STAR, STR's future demand benchmarking division. "Given that 100,000 delegates were expected to attend the Mobile World Congress, the effects will be significant for hoteliers in reaching their performance goals for not only this quarter, but the entire year."