A report just issued by MKG Hospitality for members of the European Cities Marketing (ECM) alliance
claims mixed permance for European hotels in the first half of the
year to July but a strong result for certain cities in August with an
average 5.7 per cent growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR).
The UK is taking advantage of the effect of the Olympics.
Average rate reached £137.0, up 36.3 per cent and RevPAR rose 35.8 per
cent to £117.7 in London in the month of August. However, the Olympics
did not result in a higher occupancy rate, due to displacement factors.
Vanguélis
Panayotis (pictured), Director of Development MKG Group, said: “The
growth is not actually the result of an increased trend in occupancy in
European hotels, but rather due to an increase in average daily rates,
thanks to exceptional circumstances in a small group of countries.
The overall trend is in fact a decrease in occupancy rate (although it
remains high for August) combined with a fairly contrasting change in
average daily rates depending on geographic areas.
“The
Olympic Games in London and the German exhibition and fair market
successfully brought indicators into the green, while the majority of
European countries struggled with the impact of the economic crisis.”
Since
the beginning of the year, several German cities recorded good results
due to their well-developed business and MICE activity. In the north of
the country, Berlin registered a RevPAR growth of 6.9 per cent, due to a
positive increase in the occupancy rate. Dusseldorf succeeded in
reaching growth of 6.2 per cent RevPAR. In the south, the dynamic city
of Munich hosted the annual Congress of the European Society of
Cardiology with 30,000 participants during four days which gave a
significant boost for their hotel sector.
There were contrasting
results for Nordic countries. Copenhagen recorded an increase in RevPAR
of 2.4 per cent while Helsinki’s increased 8.3 per cent. However,
permances in Sweden and Norway followed a reverse trend. Oslo
hoteliers had to lower their prices by more than 12 per cent to keep the
occupancy rate stable. In Stockholm, the occupancy rate decreased by
almost three points.
The economic downturn in Spain impacted
hotel permance throughout the country with the exception of Bilbao,
which increased 2.5 per cent, and Barcelona where RevPAR increased by
6.4 per cent.
Occupancy
rate in Madrid was down by nearly three points, whereas in Seville, the
drop was four points and in Zaragoza 5.6 points.
The
Italian hotel industry also encountered decreased demand with all
markets showing a negative variation in occupancy rate, especially in
Venice with a decrease of 8.6 per cent and Florence with a 4.6 point
drop.
Garry
White, CEO of ECM, said: “The results show that we are now in a
highly-competitive environment to attract business and meetings to
European cities and that successful bids for major events and
international meetings can make the crucial difference in annual hotel
occupancy rates. Given the economic backdrop an increase of 5.7 per cent
in August, RevPAR is an excellent and encouraging result for the
industry.“
ECM promotes and links the interests of 120 members from over 100 major cities in 32 countries.
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