The countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea (Port ugal, Spain, Italy and Greece) continue to benefit from their leisure tourism dynamism allowing them to attract clientele coming from all over Europe.
According to MKG Consulting after a year 2016 marked by a steady occupancy on the European territory, the year 2017 shows results significantly improved with an occupancy rate increased by more than 2 points. This increase in occupancy together with – slightly – higher prices (+2.5%), enable RevPAR (revenue per available room) to grow by 5.7%. European hoteliers had not recorded such a performance since 2011.
All major markets recorded strong returns. The countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea (Port ugal, Spain, Italy and Greece) continue to benefit from their leisure tourism dynamism allowing them to attract clientele coming from all over Europe. The winner is the Portuguese hoteliers who show a RevPAR increase of 18.8%, mainly due to average prices growth (+ 14.5%). France and Belgium, for their part, record a net increase in activity following a year 2016 marked by the impact of attacks that had significantly disturbed the attractiveness of these two territories (Brussels for Belgium and Paris and Nice for France). The UK did not really suffer from Brexit so far. In fact, the RevPAR recorded by the hoteliers in the UK rose by 5.6%.
However, a sharp slowdown in demand was felt just after the announcement of Brexit end of June 2017.
Germany and Austria posted improving performances but not in line with other European countries. For Germany, this is partly explained by the event activity which was very important in 2016. Indeed, several big biannual or triennial fairs in Munich and Dusseldorf took place in 2016 but not in 2017.
The year 2017 was therefore marked by a sharp rise in occupancy to reach the highest level ever recorded since the early 2000s (71.8% in 2017). The increase in activity was observed throughout the twelve months of the year, the last negative variation of RevPAR dating back to October 2016.
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
