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.
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%.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
