York hotels buck downward trend while Sheffield suffers
YORK is the only UK city to have seen a rise in average hotel rates for the year so far, according to a survey.
The report by business advisory firm Deloitte found that hotel rates in the historic city rose by 0.2% to £67 per room compared with a 10.5% fall across the country.
Occupancy in York hotels was more than 77% – significantly higher than the rest of the country where it was 69%.
Elsewhere in the region Leeds performed slightly worse than the national average with a decrease of around 14% to £57 per room.
Sheffield revealed the greatest fall of the 19 cities surveyed with a decrease of around 30% to just £51 per room.
Martin Jenkins, hospitality partner in the Leeds office of Deloitte, said: “To achieve almost 80% occupancy during one of the most severe economic downturns in history is very impressive, and York is proving able to maintain its position as one of the key tourist destinations in the North both for UK and overseas visitors.”
Mr Jenkins added that although the number of overseas visitors to the UK was down 8% during the first seven months of the year, a surge in domestic tourism was counter-balancing the decline.
“So far this year, overseas departures by UK residents have decreased 16% as the appeal to holiday in the UK heightens,” he said.
“This has helped hotels to avoid the massive average room rate discounting that has taken place in other European countries. Unfortunately, cities such as Sheffield, which tend to be business rather than tourist destinations, have not benefited from this trend.”
