Rates and revenue also fall
Hotels in Europe have suffered a substantial year-on-year drop in occupancy according to the latest figures from STR Global.
The hotel benchmarking company said occupancy in January fell in all five European countries surveyed compared with the same month in 2008.
STR also reported that occupancy levels were down in all three other regions surveyed, The Americas, the Middle East/Africa and Asia-Pacific.
In Europe, STR said occupancy fell by 23.2% in Russia, 17.5% in Italy, 14.5% in Spain, 8.3% in Germany and 7.3% in the UK.
Occupancy levels in the five countries in January were: Russia 34.1%, Italy 39.2%, Spain 44.4%, Germany 47.7% and the UK 55.8%.
There were also substantial falls in the revPAR (revenue per available room).
In Russia it dropped 29%, Italy by 24.6%, in Spain by 19.8%, in the UK by 12% and in Germany by 10.9%, compared with January 2008.
There were also smaller falls in average daily rates in Europe, STR said.
Italy was down 8.6% to €112.7, Russia down 7.6% to €137.4, Spain down 6.2% to €83.17, the UK down 5.1% to £74.77 and Germany down 2.8% to €83.25.
In The Americas, STR said occupancy in the US was down 10.5% to 45.9% compared with January 2008 and down 5.7% in Canada to 47.8%.
The US also suffered a 15.3% drop in revPAR.
In the Middle East-Africa region, the United Arab Emirates had a 16.6% drop in occupancy to 68.3% and a 21.2% fall in revPAR.
The biggest fall in Asia-Pacific was in China which saw its occupancy for January drop 29.2% with India's dropping by 23.2% and Singapore's dropping by 21.1%.
RevPAR also fell steeply in the region with China's down 36.7%, India's 35.7% and Singapore's 30.1%.
www.strglobal.com