UK hotel industry still growing, but at slower pace

The pace of growth in the UK hotel industry slowed during June, but the figures are still ahead of last year.

Occupancy across the country rose by 2.2 percentage points to 77.1%, while room rate was up by 5.1% to £72.68.

The increases combined to produce revenue per available room (revpar) up by 8.1% to £56.05.

In London occupancy was up by 2.2 points to 82.2%, while room rate climbed by 9.8% to £92.34 and revpar by 12.9% to £75.92.

In the UK provinces occupancy rose by 2.1% to 75.2%, room rate by 2.6% to £64.75 and revpar by 5.5% to £48.72.

But the rises were behind those recorded in May, when overall UK revpar grew by 12.8%, London revpar rose by 26.4% and provincial revpar by 6.6%.

TRI managing director Jonathan Langston said: "The rate of growth was expected to slow as we progressed further into 2004 because the performance in the latter part of 2003 was much stronger than earlier in the year.

"Nonetheless, trading clearly remains robust and full-year figures for 2004 look set to impress."

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