While European airlines seem to have fallen by the wayside in the fight for post-recession recovery, hotels in Europe are ahead of the game.
A Deloitte report on global hotel performance in 2010 shows nine of the top 20 cities around the world in terms of occupancy and room rates were in Europe.
Alex Kyriakidis, global managing director of tourism, said that despite sluggish economic recovery and austerity cuts, “there were some star performers in Europe”.
When ranked by revenue per available room (RevPAR), seven of the top 20 cities globally were in Europe.
London outperformed the rest of the European cities in terms of occupancy, which was 82.1% on average for 2010, while RevPAR grew 11.7%.
Kyriakidis said: “RevPAR growth gained momentum in the capital during 2010 and the results were good despite the current economic uncertainty facing the UK economy.”
The British capital was ranked in third place globally for occupancy, after Sydney and Seoul, 9th place on RevPar, and 14th place in terms of room rate.
However, this year may prove more challenging, warned Kyriakidis, as the city starts to see new hotel supply come on board in the run up to the Olympics.
www.deloitte.co.uk