Hotel growth hit but not stopped by terror attacks, says PWC

This summer's terrorist attacks in London have slowed UK hotel growth but not destroyed it, according to business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

In its latest Hospitality Directions Europe update, PWC forecasts the impact of the attacks will be short-lived with little effect on hotel performance outside the capital.

As a result, PWC predicts UK revenue per available room (revpar) growth will now be 3.3% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006 and 4% in 2007.

Liz Hall, editor of the report, said: "It's not bad at all, under the circumstances, although not as exciting as the 7.9% and 6.5% growth we expected back in May for 2005 and 2006."

PWC still expects London to achieve 2.5% revpar growth this year, 2.6% next and 3.9% in 2007.

Manchester can look forward to revpar increases of 5.9% in 2005, 5.4% in 2006 and 6.1% in 2007.

Birmingham, which relies on lower-rate conference and meetings business will see revpar grow 1.7% this year. In 2006 this will increase 2.7%, dropping to 2.6% in 2007.

Edinburgh, which PWC claims has some of the highest room yields in the UK outside London, is forecast to achieve revpar growth of 3.4% this year, 3.3% in 2006 and 2.7% in 2007.

By Chris Druce

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