Politics and sport shape global hotel performance

Major sporting and political events had a huge effect on how well hotels did in some of the world's major cities in 2000, according to the city survey published by consultancy firm PKF this week.

European cities dominated the rankings in the survey, which does not include America but does cover the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

In Amsterdam, the effect of a big sporting event was clear. An already feverish market was given a further boost when the city hosted five matches in the European football championships.

Political influences were evident in the decline of occupancy in Jerusalem, beset by violence and the fear of violence.

But overall hotels coped well in 2000 even where there were political difficulties. In Austria, the election of Jorg Haider and the far right Freedom Party did damage tourist figures in the first few months of the year, but the figures recovered strongly in the second half. As a result, occupancy in Vienna finished the year marginally up (by 1%). PKF believes the city will see further modest increases in occupancy and room rates this year.

In the occupancy league, London was dislodged from its top position - despite its increase by 0.9% to 80.8% - and overtaken by Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Zurich.

In average rate, one of the notable performers was Kuwait, which increased its figure by 9.5% to US$205 (£146), which put it in third place in the rankings behind Paris and London.

In all, 2000 was a terrific year for European hoteliers. Only four out of 30 European cities surveyed saw a fall in occupancy. The biggest faller was Oslo, down 4.7%. One influence here was the new Gardermoen airport, which is 35 miles from the city centre. This has meant more international companies holding meetings near the airport rather than in the city, a trend likely to be increased by the new conference centre opening at Gardermoen this autumn. The other three cities which had a fall in occupancy were Warsaw, Edinburgh and Helsinki.

The biggest gains were in cities that had dreadful years in 1999, places including St Petersburg (occupancy up 21.1%), Istanbul (up 18.7%) and Moscow (up 12.8%). All these cities were simply recovering lost ground and average room rates were secondary to occupancy. Rates fell in both St Petersburg and Moscow and increased slightly (by 2.5%) in Istanbul.