Worldwide hotel occupancy drops to record low

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An industry report recently released has shown that hotel occupancy levels around the world have dropped to record lows.

Last month, over 40 per cent of hotel rooms world-wide were unoccupied, as airlines and travel operators reported declining passenger numbers, and businesses cut back on travel expenditures, according to the report published by STR Global hotel performance analysts.

In the Americas, more than 43 per cent of hotel rooms were empty in April, which was a fall of 11 per cent on the same month in 2008. In Europe and Asia Pacific, 41 per cent of the available hotel rooms were unoccupied, which meant a decrease in occupancy rates of 14 per cent for both regions. The Middle East saw a decline of 33 per cent – which was down by 13 per cent over the same month last year.

Hotels in the UK fared better than the world-wide average, with 31 per cent of all rooms empty during the month, down by around seven per cent on the same month in 2008.

Of all European cities, Edinburgh saw the best performance, with more than three-fourths of its rooms occupied, an increase of eight per cent over last year. Düsseldorf, heavily reliant on business travellers, saw occupancy rates fall by one-third, to 47.6 per cent.

The number of city breaks taken by UK holidaymakers has dropped sharply, as the decline in the value of the pound against the euro and rising hotel room rates have kept them at home.

For more information on this article please visit www.telegraph.co.uk.

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