Travel and Tourism (Hotels) Sports Sponsorship Landscape - Analysing the Trends, Biggest Brands and Spenders, Deals, Product Category Breakdown and Case Studies

An analysis of the global hotels industry and their involvements in sports sponsorship, with a closer look at some of the major deals and active brands.

The hotels sponsorship sector has a total spend of $1.27 billion, and an annual spend of $415.4 million. The two highest annually spending brands are Accor Hotels and MGM Resorts, who have respective spends of $96.1 million and $68.5 million respectively across 11 and 16 deals respectively. In total, Hard Rock International have the highest total spend over deal value durations, with the total spend of its four deals amounting to $264 million. The most active brands were MGM Resorts and Hilton with 16 deals apiece, having a combined annual spend of $80.1 million between them, the majority of which can be attributed to MGM Resorts.

Soccer was the most prominently sponsored sport, with 40.5% of hotel deals falling within that sport. Soccer is the most attractive sport to sponsor for hotel brands globally with 186 deals, while accounting for 17.9% of annual sponsorship spend. Ice hockey is the second most prominently sponsored sport in this dataset with 65 deals, although annual spending for this sport is sixth highest, at $34.2 million. Looking at total deal values, American football is the biggest revenue generator, with its nine deals generating a spend of $353.4 million over the duration of their contract lengths, which is the highest of any sport.
A total of 366 different hotel brands have been recorded as having sponsorship agreements in place. 44.5% of these aforementioned brands have headquarters in the Americas, while Europe accounts for 41.2% independently. Additionally, nearly half (47.9%) of the total deals in this dataset are with American brands, highlighting the strength of that continent's brands with regards to the global sponsorship sector for hotels. There are also 11 global deals included with this dataset, which only amounts to 2.4% of the total deals in this dataset, highlighting the focus on specific regions and countries that these deals tend to have.

Key Highlights

As of 30th May 2023, there are a total of 459 active deals with hotel brands, globally, with much of this deal volume being driven by deals within soccer. Specifically driving this are an abundance of deals with teams, many of which don't have significantly high deal values attached in comparison to other industries. However, in comparison to other sports, many of the soccer deal values are higher than their counterparts, highlighting how well hotel brands have done in establishing themselves within the sponsorship sector of the world's most popular sport.

Looking at the entire hotels sector, the most high value deal by a significant distance is Accor Hotels and their agreement with the IOC to serve as a partner for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, which are due to be held in Paris next year. The deal, which will only be active for the event duration, is estimated to be worth $60 million a year. Another highly prominent deal within the sector is MGM Resorts and their agreement with the MLB, which sees parent company BetMGM become a betting partner for the league. Also included in the deal is MGM Resorts' loyalty program being the title sponsor of the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game. The entire scope of the deal is estimated to be worth $25 million a year, and $125 million over its five-year deal length.

Soccer is the most popular sport for hotel brands, with the sport having significantly more than double the active agreements of the next most popular sport, ice hockey. Additionally, soccer generates the highest annual value in terms of sponsorship spend, with a total spend of $14 million more than multi-sport games, which currently has a sponsorship spend of $60 million. The most high-profile soccer deal is between Paris Saint-Germain and Accor Hotels, who agreed a deal estimated to be worth $10 million a year to become the team's training kit sleeve sponsor.

Team deals bring in 35% of annual sponsorship spend, which is understandable given how many more team deals there are than any other kind. Comparatively, the number of federation deals is less than four times the number of team deals, but generates 28% of overall annual value. This is unsurprising given that most leagues and organizations will always generate higher fees than individual teams.

Who Should Buy

• Investors who are attempting to understand the current dynamics of hotel brands and their forays into sports sponsorship.
• Sports industry professionals who want a detailed analysis on some of the hotel industry and their bigger deals within sports sponsorship.
• Sports industry workers who want further information as to how the hotel sectors involvement in sponsorship has evolved and changed in recent years.

Scope

• This report provides an overview of the hotels sponsorship sector globally, with a look at specific regions
• The report identifies the key hotel brands currently operating in the sector, including the most active brands and the ones with the highest spend
• A look at which sports are the most frequently sponsored by hotel brands, and how they are benefiting from these deals
• A detailed look at what kinds of partnerships are most prevalent when it comes to hotel brands

Reasons to Buy

• For those wanting an in depth analysis of how the biggest partnerships active in the sector
• Discusses why some brands are more active than others, and how this is affected by the sports that are most popular in their regions
• The publisher's thematic research ecosystem is a single, integrated global research platform that provides an easy-to-use framework for tracking all themes across all companies in all sectors. It has a proven track record of identifying the important themes early, enabling companies to make the right investments ahead of the competition, and secure that all-important competitive advantage.