UK hotels achieve highest revpar in Europe
UK hotel revpar (revenue per available room) grew by nearly two-and-a-half times that of European hotels in 2005.
According to data from research information company The Bench and KPMG, the UK recorded 5.5% revpar growth last year, compared with 2.2% in Europe.
In the UK, Aberdeen was the strongest performer, seeing revpar grow by just over 16%.
Philip Camble, hotel advisor at KPMG, said the strong growth in Aberdeen was down to efforts to drive weekend trade.
"Strong weekend trade is critical to achieving average annual occupancy levels in excess of 70% and should be the target for all city centre hotels. Weekend occupancy is therefore crucial to the business model," he said.
Scandinavia topped the European league with revpar growth of 6.7%. Copenhagen saw the highest growth for an individual city at 20%, and Oslo was second with 17%.
Jamie Chappell, managing director of The Bench, said: "Scandinavia is a rags-to-riches story."
He said that after the fall-out from the bursting of the dotcom bubble, which the area was heavily invested in at the turn of the century, recovery had been driven by "a huge increase in low-cost flights to the region and an exceptional conference year".
But the rest of Europe remained "fairly stagnant", reflecting the general state of the German and French economies.
By Emily Manson
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