Hotel performances across Europe stay globally positive in the 1st semester 2014

The new results from the ECM-MKG European Destinations Observatory report¹ highlight differences between destinations but also continuity in the positive trends since 2013 for almost all European countries partly thanks to a variety of big international events.

For the first semester of 2014, most European cities followed a positive trend with an occupancy rate increasing by 1.6 points over 2013. It pursues 2013’s trend where the occupancy rate increased, for the first 8 months, by 1.3 points over the year before.

With its solid business tourism, Germany experienced a strong increase in its Average Daily Rate³ with Düsseldorf in pole position. Hamburg midscale and upscale segments also performed quite well in the first term of 2014, mostly thanks to corporate and MICE business as well as national and international trade fairs, (e.g. Aircraft EXPO, IN‐cosmetics or Internoga). Some leisure events such as Hamburg Port Festival and Marathon (both in May) had positive impact on the overall hotel performance too.

European cities note a slight progression while in the first part of the year, however many cities in France (like Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse or Nice) presented a downtrend due to the drop of the occupancy rate. Paris is no exception with a negative change in its revenue per available room (-2.5%).

Ignasi De Delàs, president of European Cities Marketing commented: “Our last ECM City Tourism Monitors⁴ published in January and April 2014 outlined that predictions from city tourism experts were optimistic, with 64% of respondents expecting a positive first quarter and 73% expecting a positive second quarter. It was also revealed that “Future Events” was the Number 1 factor mentioned by the experts that would have a positive impact on the growth. The actual results show that the forecasts from the city tourism experts are pretty close to the actual results.”

¹ECM-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.
²RevPAR: Occupancy rate x average price or room revenue divided by available rooms.
³ADR: Average Daily Rate – room revenue divided by number of sold rooms.
⁴ECM City Tourism Monitor: A quarterly research that gives a barometer of city tourism. Through a survey of member city tourist offices and convention bureaux, it tracks perceptions as to the level of current and immediate future business across conventions and leisure tourism market segments.

*European Cities Marketing improves 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 32 countries.
For more information and pictures, please contact:
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.