Belfast tops UK revpar rankings

The luck of the Irish has been paying off for Belfast's hoteliers, according to the UK edition of Deloitte & Touche's HotelBenchmark Survey.

Since it was added to the survey in January, Belfast has become the top-performing market in terms of revenue per available room (revpar).

In August, Belfast showed a 10.5% increase in revpar, to £37 compared with £34 in the same period in 2002, putting it in fourth place in terms of growth behind Reading, Cardiff and York.

In the year to date, revpar has increased by 12% to £42, driven primarily by a 6.1 percentage point increase in occupancy to 69.6%. Average room rate during the period increased by 2.1% to £60, compared with £58 a year earlier.

A glut of conferences and events, including the Special Olympic Games, helped lift figures in the city during the period, but local hoteliers said many of the conferences were one-offs.