International demand for Birmingham hotels among highest in UK

Birmingham has seen a 15% rise in hotel demand by international visitors in 2018 – amongst the highest in the UK.

The findings drawn Expedia’s Q1 data show that demand for trips made by international travellers increased when compared to the same period last year, with cities and regions across the country boosted by strong year-on-year growth.

Broader data examining the EMEA region as a whole found that London was the number one destination for global travellers who booked on Expedia Group’s sites in the first quarter of 2018.

Outside of London, several major cities experienced double-digit growth alongside Birmingham, including Bristol (+15% year on year), Newcastle (over +10% year on year), Manchester and Glasgow (each just over +10% year on year).

Top performing regions across the period included Yorkshire, East Anglia, Essex and the South West. Demand in Scotland increased in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year.

For the UK as a whole, hoteliers enjoyed positive growth from overseas travelers, with demand buoyant from traditionally strong visitor markets such as the US (almost +55% year on year), Germany (almost +45% year on year) and Australia (+45% year on year).

Demand was further fuelled by visitors from several fast-growing markets such as Spain, Argentina, Ireland and Mexico, which all featured triple-digit year on year increases. Furthermore, there was notable growth in travellers from Far East countries such as China, Korea and Hong Kong.

Package demand to the UK has also grown strongly across a number of visitor markets as marketing campaigns promoting the benefits of visiting ‘Destination UK’ have an impact. This helped push up average daily rates (ADR) for these types of bookings (a combination of hotel, and/or flight and/or car hire).

Irene Roberts from Expedia said: “Our first quarter data for 2018 shows what an encouraging start to the year our hotel partners in Birmingham have enjoyed. Our proposition of providing them with a global reach through our investment in technology and marketing is helping capture those valuable international visitors and driving conversions.

“It’s particularly encouraging to see strong growth in demand in a major city like Birmingham and with the approaching UK summertime popular with international guests, hotels should hopefully enjoy some busy months ahead.”

Expedia Group data shows the top destinations in Q1 2018 across the EMEA region were:
1.                  London
2.                  Paris
3.                  Dubai
4.                  Rome
5.                  Amsterdam
6.                  Berlin
7.                  Barcelona
8.                  Istanbul
9.                  Madrid
10.              Stockholm

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