Business slows at Millennium

Millennium and Copthorne has seen a slowdown in business at its UK and US hotels in the past few weeks, the company said today. It added that it remained cautious on the immediate outlook but expected trading to improve in the second half of the year. Chairman Kwek Leng Beng said that since the company reported record year-end results in March it had experienced a slowdown in America, particularly in New York, while its business in Britain had been hit by the drop in tourism resulting from the foot-and-mouth epidemic. But business across most of Asia had continued to grow, he added. The company, which operates 88 hotels worldwide, saw its revenue per available room (revpar) increase in the UK by around 5% during the first three months of the year. In Continental Europe it increased by 9.6%, in the USA by 4.5%, in Australasia by 3.1% and in Asia by 12.9%.Web linksMillennium & Copthorne