Strong start to the year for East Mids hotels

Hotels in the East Midlands were one of the strongest performers in the UK, according to new figures from VisitEngland.

The national tourism board’s England Occupancy Survey shows that across the East Midlands, room occupancy increased by 2% in January and 1% in February, the only region along with the South West with two consecutive months of growth.

The ‘RevPar’ measure, which is the total room revenue divided by the total number of available rooms in a region, increased by 5% across the East Midlands in January and 2% in February.

Brendan Moffett, chief executive of Marketing NG, said: “One of our key organisational aims is to work closely with the tourism and hospitality sector to help increase the duration and value of overnight stays in Nottingham. This is an incredibly positive start to the year and with the new Hoodwinked art trail and Robin Hood film release later in the year there’s plenty for us to build on.”

Charlotte Goy, director of marketing and PR at Visit Lincoln added: “This is a strong start for 2018 which is encouraging for Lincolnshire and the East Midlands. Lincolnshire will benefit from four Discover England Funded projects over the next two years which will attract more domestic and overseas visitors to the area, resulting in a further boost to the regional and local economy.”

Jo Dilley, managing director of Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire, said: “This is great news, given that our ongoing mission is to encourage more staying visitors to spend more time and money in the Peak District and Derbyshire for the benefit of the local and regional economy.

“It also underlines the importance of our efforts to drive up the quality of our overall tourism offer, through our current £1.49m business support programme, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, and our participation in international marketing campaigns, worth more than £5m and targeting key markets such as Australia, China, Germany, The Netherlands and the USA.”