New statistics show that hotel bookings in Glasgow are at their highest level for the past 11 months with the city continuing to outperform many of its major European competitors.
 
The latest data from STR (Deloitte) Global’s monthly UK hotel trends report, produced for Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB), shows hotel occupancy in the city reached 83% in June; the highest level since August and a 4.5% rise compared to June 2009.
 
In addition, the report outlined that the city’s year-to-date occupancy figure of 72.5% – which reflects the financial period April to June 2010 – is greater than Amsterdam, Hamburg, Barcelona, Vienna, Dublin, Rome, Prague and Copenhagen.
 
Room yields – the industry’s standard measure of revenue per available room (RevPAR) – have also risen. Separate analysis for June by Lynn Jones Forecaster shows Glasgow’s yields have increased nearly 13% to an average of £61.14 compared to £54.16 in June last year.  
 
The successful visitor numbers come on the back of a busy month for Glasgow as it saw nearly 8,000 delegates descend on the city for major conferences including the sixth Research Congress on European Palliative Care, the ASME IGTI Turbo Expo, the European Symposium on Calcified Tissues and the International Symposium on Dental Hygiene Screen Studies.
 
Scott Taylor, Chief Executive of GCMB, said: “Glasgow has very strong year-round conference and events-based tourism. Although some conference business was affected by the ash cloud, we have had a very good first half to the year and we’re expecting the next six months to be just as strong due to the conferences and major events already confirmed.
 
“Glasgow played host to Snow Patrol, Pink and Sir Paul McCartney in June alone, and we expect to see significant numbers of people coming to the city in September, October and November given the high-profile conferences and events we have lined up, including MTV Crashes…Glasgow and the 2010 World Parkinson Congress.
 
“Glasgow City Marketing Bureau will continue to work with its partners to ensure the city remains a popular destination in what is a highly competitive global environment.”
 
Dominic McVey, Co-Chair of Greater Glasgow Hotels Association, said: “The Greater Glasgow Hotels Association works hand in glove with GCMB and the city-wide partners to help win business for Glasgow.
 
 “We are regularly asked by hotels associations in other destinations to explain Glasgow’s success and the answer is that it’s through partnership working, our ‘can do’ attitude and customer focus, which set the city apart.”