Hotel industry in Europe keeps a positive trend for the first quarter of 2016 despite terrorism fear

The latest ECM-MKG European Destinations Observatory report* points out that for the first quarter of 2016, European hotels keep up the positive trend with a 0.6 point increase in Occupancy Rate and 1% growth in Average Daily Rate** allowing the RevPAR*** to improve by 2%.

Despite widespread growth, contrasts can be observed when it comes to individual country performance. Factors such as the migrant crisis – affecting tourism in certain destinations – and the security environment following the Brussels attacks in March impacted hotel performance in several key destinations across the continent.

While some capitals are affected by the terrorism fear…

As the city was directly hit by terrorism, Brussels’ RevPAR dropped by 7.4%, mostly due to a 5.5 points decrease in Occupancy Rate. Other European capitals, such as London and Berlin, were also affected by these events, raising doubts about European security in the eyes of foreign clientele.

At the same period France (except the capital) regained a growth track especially thanks to RevPAR improvement in the whole country: Reims (+13.1%), Lille (+8.2%) or Marseille (+7.4%), Paris is still recovering from the consequences of the November attacks on tourism with a RevPAR decrease by 9.2%.

… others seem to recover “market shares”

Prague has reached a strong RevPAR, with 18.3% growth for this indicator. The organisation of several international medical trade shows in Prague significantly stimulated hotel performance. Amsterdam was also among the frontrunners in the European landscape (+17.1% in RevPAR), as hotels benefitted from the organisation of the Fespa Digital Amsterdam and other international business events. Budapest also registered positive results, with a 10.7% increase in RevPAR due to gains in Occupancy Rate (+2.7 points) and Average Daily Rate (+5.1%). Polish hoteliers benefited from the European men’s handball championships at the beginning of the year. Warsaw and Poland report increases in the RevPAR by respectively 1.3% and 6.1% on the first quarter. Austria posted a RevPAR increase by 5.7%, it is better than the capital, Wien (+0.6%).

In Northern Europe, Edinburgh observed a RevPAR increase by 7.5%, a trend totally different from London or Liverpool which decreased by 4.5% and 1.8% respectively.

Finally, performance across Southern Europe continued to improve, boasting higher results than in the 2015 first quarter. RevPAR in Lisbon grew by 2.4%, it strongly increased in Spain with San Sebastian (+34%), Zaragoza (+25.9%), Malaga and

Seville (+21.7%), Barcelona (+16%) and Madrid (+12.8%). Rome and Turin are on a positive trend, with RevPAR increase by 2.4% and 4.2%.

All ECM members have exclusive access to the complete ECM-MKG European Destinations Observatory report with all the graphs and analysis.

*ECM-MKG European Destinations Observatory report: A report produced by MKG Hospitality and released several times a year by ECM that presents the development of key performance indicators for ECM member cities.
**ADR: Average Daily Rate – room revenue divided by number of sold rooms.
***RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room – occupancy rate x average price or room revenue divided by available rooms.

**ENDS**

European Cities Marketing is a non-profit organisation improving the competitiveness and performance of leading cities of Europe by providing a platform for convention, leisure and city marketing professionals to exchange knowledge, best practice and widen their network to build new business. European Cities Marketing is promoting and linking the interests of members from more than 100 major cities in 36 countries.

Contact information
Flavie Baudot, press@europeancitiesmarketing.com, +33 380 56 02 00

Established nearly 30 years ago, MKG Group® has built a solid reputation for business expertise and substantial European-based know-how in the tourism, hotel and hospitality sector. MKG provides a unique savoir-faire in market research, consulting, financial feasibility studies, individual property and portfolio asset valuations, as well as quality control campaigns. The foundation of knowledge and resource is HotelCompSet, the largest industry database in Europe, representing all hotel segments.