Year-to-July 2003 figures from the Italian edition of the HotelBenchmark
Survey by Deloitte & Touche
reveals that despite falling occupancy levels
and average room rates, Italian hoteliers still managed to achieve higher
rooms revenue per available room (revPAR) than many of their European
counterparts. 
During the first seven months of the year, the revPAR of Italian hotels
stood at EUR92 - some EUR24 higher than the UK, EUR27 higher than the
Netherlands and EUR48 higher than Germany.  Compared to the performance of
hotels across Europe as a whole, revPAR in Italy is EUR31 higher. Despite
this sterling performance, the Italian hotel market has seen revPAR fall
over the last seven months by almost 8 percent.  In percentage terms,
although this is higher than the revPAR declines experienced across Germany
and Belgium, this remains lower than both the UK and the Netherlands, which
have seen revPAR fall by 14.7 percent and 14.5 percent respectively.

Italian hoteliers appear to have taken a tougher stance on discounting their
rates, compared to other countries.  Year-to-date figures show that average
rates have fallen by only two percent compared to the same period last year,
whilst the UK and the Netherlands have seen rates fall by 13.5 percent and
5.9 percent respectively.  Unsurprisingly this means that occupancy has come
under pressure, falling by 6 percent to just below the 60 percent mark. 

Of the six cities tracked across Italy, Turin was the only market to report
any growth in revPAR during the first seven months of the year, albeit
marginal at 0.2 percent.  Florence, Rome and Venice experienced the largest
declines in revPAR of 15.1 percent, 11.8 percent and 10.8 percent
respectively.  These markets, with their high dependency on leisure demand
have continued to suffer from the decline in international visitor arrivals,
in particular from the North American and German markets. 

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