Hotels in Scotland outperformed both Wales and England in 2005, generating the highest percentage increase in revenue per available room (revPAR), up by 7.1% on 2004 figures according to the HotelBenchmark Survey by Deloitte. Occupancy in Scottish hotels remained steady, gaining 1.4% and the average room rate increased from £65 to £68 (5.6%). Aberdeen performed particularly well recording 17.5% growth in revPAR. According to the survey England and Wales recorded 3.4% and 3.2% rev PAR growth respectively.

Of the capital cities Cardiff and Edinburgh revPAR recorded 4.6% and 6.1% growth respectively, with London lagging considerably with only 1.9% revPAR growth.

Marvin Rust, Hospitality Managing Partner says: “As the European oil capital, Aberdeen was Scotland’s fastest growing airport. In 2005 new routes to Southampton, Norwich, Belfast, Oslo, Malaga and Tenerife were launched. According to BAA helicopter traffic grew 14.3% in 2005 - correlating with hotels seeing more corporate bookings last year.

“BAA’s recent announcement of plans for a £10m investment in the airport will no doubt help to sustain this growth. The tourism industry is worth around £4.4 billion (per annum) in Scotland and it is likely the hotel industry will continue to reap the benefits of investment into the sector.

“The third quarter 2005 figures suffered as a result of the terrorist attacks, mainly driven by a fall in London occupancy levels. This was reflected in the dramatic slowdown of the number of visits by overseas residents to the UK - a 4% increase on the third quarter of 2004, compared with double digit growth in the first half of the year,” adds Rust.*

Other results included:

London top end hotels and boutique hotels continue to outperform other segments of the market with business travellers and tourists seeking a more unique hotel experience;
December results showed London hotel occupancy levels continued to struggle to meet 2004 figures with -1.4% change;
Nottingham was the poorest performing city, recording a 5.5% drop in revPAR due to growth in supply.
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