The 2017 Hotel Market Report by Advantage Travel Partnership reveals that the number of booked corporate room nights increased by 8.4 per cent in 2017.
Figures for the report were gathered from Advantage’s corporate hotel programme of more than 30,000 properties worldwide. They show that from January to December there were 4.9 million room nights booked.
New York City continued to take the highest volume of bookings, with nearly 94,000 room nights booked across the year at an average cost of US$380 per night. Aguascalientres in Mexico saw a staggering 86 per cent increase in bookings, followed by Austin, Cape Town and Christchurch at 30 per cent each.
In the UK, Blackpool saw the biggest increase in booked room nights at 55 per cent, followed by Peterborough (48 per cent), Preston (35 per cent), Bradford (33 per cent) and Oxford (25 per cent).
Average stay also increased, to 1.92 nights, which Advantage says is a good sign that business travel remains key to companies in the challenging economic climate.
Neil Armorgie, global product director at Advantage, commented: “The business travel hotel sector for independent TMCs continues to grow. An increase through all four quarters of 2017 puts our overall hotel business up by nearly 385,000 room nights versus 2016. Despite scepticism and uncertainty in some economies, the business world is travelling and hotel occupancy is at record levels in many destinations.
“For British-based businesses, uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the slowing of GDP growth make it a challenging time for all. It is therefore heartening to see the growth in business trips to our smaller populated cities in the north.”
Download the full report here.
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