Hotel occupancy in Glasgow soared during the Commonwealth Games, new figures have revealed.

The monthly LJ Forecaster report, from tourism market research specialists LJ Research, shows that average occupancy across the nine nights of the Games in July reached 97.3 per cent.

This reflects an 11.2 per cent rise in absolute terms compared with the same period in July 2013.

Occupancy performed strongly across July as a whole, averaging 88.5 per cent for the month.

It is the highest July occupancy in the city on record; reflecting a year-on-year increase of 6.5 per cent.

It also demonstrates the scale of industry growth in the city in the last decade, with average occupancy recorded for July 2004 reaching just 77 per cent.

And it is the first time since record-keeping began in 1999 that average occupancy in July has risen above 82 per cent.
July was the 14th consecutive month of occupancy growth for Glasgow’s hotels.

The LJ Forecaster compiles the largest and most robust survey sample of hotels in Glasgow.

The report analysed data collected from 25 hotels, representing nearly 4,000 rooms in the city centre.

There was more good news for Glasgow’s hoteliers as July’s strong occupancy growth was accompanied by a sharp increase in room revenue.

The industry measure of room revenue performance, known as ‘rooms yield’ – or revenue per available room (RevPAR) – rose a massive 65.5 per cent compared to July 2013, increasing from £50.13 to £82.99.

Alongside the sporting competition during the Commonwealth Games, Festival 2014, the Games’ cultural programme; the Sainsbury’s Glasgow Grand Prix athletics and the Merchant City Festival were key drivers of visitor volume during July.

Festival 2014 welcomed over 500,000 visitors to cultural events across the city while the Merchant City Festival drew record-breaking crowds of more than 215,000 to Glasgow’s cultural quarter.

Sean Morgan, managing director at LJ Research, said: “The scale of growth recorded by Glasgow hotels in July was unprecedented as room revenue performance was an average of 65 per cent above last year based on our LJ Forecaster figures.

“There is an opportunity for Glasgow hotels to capitalise on the success of the Commonwealth Games and a heightened appeal to visit Scotland’s largest city.

“Our forward bookings analysis shows signs of continued growth in the hotel market in the city as business-on-the-books for September, October and November are well above recent years.”