Growth in European cities’ hotel industry well established for the first semester 2015

The results for first semester of 2015 from the ECM-MKG European Destinations Observatory report* confirm the long-term growth for Europe’s hotel industry.

With an occupancy rate of 67.5% throughout the European Union in the first semester, hotel chains gained 1.8 points over 2014 at the same period. The performances on the continent show an increase compared to last year with the Average Daily Rates (ADR**) (+3%) and the Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR***) (+5.8%). Some destinations produced better results depending on their geographic location. The variety of events held in some cities played a major role in the success of their performances.

Good RevPAR results for most Western Europe cities.
With solid business tourism, Germany experienced a strong increase in its ADR: Stuttgart (MedTec Europe 2015), Hanover (Hannover Messe 2015) and Cologne (FESPA 2015) know a RevPAR increase by more 13%. Other German cities such as Leipzig, Berlin and Hamburg are following this trend too. Currently, Düsseldorf after a year 2014 with international events meets some difficulties, 2015 seems to be less attractive for the business meetings.
Many cities in France (like Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse or Nice) presented good results thanks to the organisation of many international business events (VINEXPO in Bordeaux, SIRHA in Lyon, MIDEM or MIPTV in Cannes) or medical congress in Nice. Paris is the exception with a negative change in its RevPAR (-0.7%).
Benelux keeps on the right track from the beginning of the year; the number of political events and meetings explains its good performance. Brussels and Amsterdam recorded respectively an 4.9% and 3.4% increase in its RevPAR, Luxembourg have the highest RevPAR progression in this area (+12.5%).

Northern and Eastern Europe cities perform well thanks to international events. But Scandinavia is on a downtrend.
In terms of occupancy rate, the United Kingdom is keeping the lead with London, the biggest business place in Europe and Edinburgh in second position.
In terms of RevPAR, Copenhagen and Budapest got the highest results thanks to business and sport events (EuroBasket Women in Hungary). Prague, with the Ice Hockey World Championship 2015, records a positive RevPAR progression, when the city had a strong decrease on this indicator 3 months ago. Vienna (with EASL’s International Congress 2015) and Warsaw (with 2015 UEFA Europa League Final and World food Warsaw 2015), improved their RevPAR respectively by 3.2% and 8.4% since the beginning of the year.
Only Oslo stands out from its Scandinavian counterparts’ thanks to its ADR rise. Helsinki and Stockholm record a combined decrease in both occupancy rate and ADR.

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.

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 110 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.