With aspirations to maintain momentum in the Loizou family’s home base of Cyprus, while expanding its hospitality portfolio still further across Greece, Louis Group has a talent for focusing on its areas of expertise.
“The priority is stabilisation in Cyprus, with primarily expansion into Greece,” said Louis Loizou, executive director, Louis Group in a recent interview. Louis Hotels currently manages 26 four-and five-star hotels and resorts units in both Cyprus and the Greek islands of Crete, Corfu, Mykonos, Zante, Kefalonia and Rhodes. “You realise that is a lot when you have hotels on different islands – the trips are many,” he added. “Adding other countries is not one of our priorities.”
Early beginnings: from hotels to cruise lines
Louis Loizou’s namesake and grandfather founded the company in 1935 in Limassol as a transport and travel agency, with the company later expanding into a range of activities and divisions. The business acquired the Semmering hotel in 1942 in the Cyprus mountains and leased the Grand Hotel in Platres, followed by the Louis Hotel in Nicosia, before taking over the luxury Ledra Palace in Nicosia in 1969.
The group became active in the field of cruise ship ownership and management in 1986, acquiring its first ship and commencing cruises to Egypt and Israel during what Loizou calls the “boom time” of the cruise industry. The creation of mini-cruises to neighbouring countries of one-to-three-day duration helped enhance “the whole concept of the Cyprus holiday product”, he said.
Louis plc was created in Nicosia in 1998 under the name Louis Cruise Lines, aiming to acquire 100 percent of the share capital of Louis Group’s ship-owning and other related group companies that operated in the cruise sector. In 1999 the company issued new shares to the public, which were listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange. Today, Louis plc mainly focuses on the hotel sector, through its subsidiary Louis Hotels Public Company and on the cruise sector, through its associate Celestyal Cruises. The business employs some 4,000 members of staff mainly in Cyprus and Greece.
For Loizou, the 1970s and 80s were key to the family business’ expansion across Cyprus. “In 1978 we established Sunotels which was the first hotel company we had, with over 30 units on the island. However, we gradually moved into the higher end, namely the ownership and management of four or five-star hotels, both in Cyprus and the Greek islands,” he said.
The 1990s, meanwhile, saw significant growth into Greece and further stabilisation in Cyprus. The business took over management of the Creta Paradise Beach Resort Hotel in Chania, Crete, in 1992, and acquired the Louis Grand Hotel in Corfu as well as the Louis Creta Princess Hotel in Chania in 1994. In 1998, the firm purchased the Louis Plagos Beach Hotel in Zakynthos, before adding four hotels to its portfolio in 1999 and 2000, including one in Zakynthos, two hotels in Corfu and one in Mykonos.
Branching out and international signings
According to Loizou, food and beverage (F&B) provision has always been a key part of the Louis Hotels offering. The business opened its first restaurant in 2003, Akakiko, serving simple Japanese fusion food. This was followed by Ellinko, a restaurant offering Greek taverna cuisine, which was later replicated. “The company’s franchise restaurants harmoniously complement the international, thematic restaurants located within the company’s hotels, offering truly refined culinary options to guests,” he said.
The last two decades have seen international partnerships arise, such as a management agreement for the Hilton Nicosia, signed in 2002. The business also cooperates on a franchise basis with other international brands such as lti hotels and Design hotels today.
Growth in the last ten years has also included the launch of three new hotels 2016-2018, while another property was opened in May 2019 under the Louis Hotels brand. In 2016, the company-owned St. Elias Resort in Protaras, which had remained inactive for around five years, was relaunched as an Ultra All Inclusive Resort following an investment of over € 4 million. In 2021, Louis Hotels opened a new 5-star hotel, Asterion Suites & Spa in Chania, Crete and launched a new 5-star hotel Once in Mykonos above Ornos beach, Mykonos, in 2022.
The timing of those launches demonstrated a certain foresight towards the latter end of the Coronavirus pandemic, which Loizou described as “the most difficult period” in the history of the business. “First of all, we lost people – we lost relatives, we lost friends,” he said. He described tourism as being “affected unimaginably”.
Connectivity and competition
Despite this, reasons to be cheerful followed, with Cyprus registering record visitors in the last few years. He noted that increasing connectivity in terms of airlift has helped bring more tourists to the island, although there have only been modest improvements in off-season routes tackling matters of year-round balance. Another issue is inflation, with price rises on “airfares, accommodation, excursions, transportation” all burdening travellers with higher costs.
While faced with rising competition from apartment rentals and cross-border investment in the region, Loizou is open to “healthy competition” on the whole, as long as there is a level playing field in terms of firms paying local taxes and fees. He also identifies changing source countries and traveller tastes which are enriching the markets of Cyprus and Greece. While British tourism still brings the lion’s share of overnight stays to Cyprus, the island has seen dwindling Russian visitors as the Ukraine war has progressed.
“When it comes to Greece, it is much easier to get there from both Asia and America,” he noted. “Connectivity has improved a lot and every year we have a one hundred percent increase in routes and destinations from various countries.”