The hotel sector in Britain has been relatively ignored in the news recently, however legitimate concerns have indeed been raised to suggest that there is currently a worrying discrepancy between the performance profit rates of the different hotels operating in this country.
It has been found that on the whole 2016 was a particularly good year for tourism and leisure-based hotel accommodation destinations. On the other hand, statistics compiled by the most recent Hotel Bulletin Q4 2016 have shown that the accommodation sector operating in a more business-orientated scope has dropped and this is therefore a worrying concern for hotel owners and operators working in that particular sector of the property industry in Britain. The amounts RevPAR (rooms revenue per available room) in the tourism sectors enjoyed healthy percentages, with popular tourism destinations in the country such as Bath and Liverpool seeing their RevPAR rates increase at the end of 2016 by 13 and 14 per cent respectively.
This is clearly a sign for the property and development industry that accommodation in the tourism sector is benefitting the most from a weaker pound sterling, since this means cheaper exchange rates for tourists from other countries and therefore naturally results in a greater number of hotel bookings from tourists wishing to visit the different attractions in this country. Whilst this is undoubtedly a good sign for the tourism industry, the business accommodation sector did not see the same encouraging growth rates.
For example, the RevPAR percentage amounts in Newcastle went down by 8 per cent, whilst those in Cardiff decreased by 6 per cent. Similarly, the city of London, normally a popular hub for both the business and tourism industries, only saw a 2 per cent increases in business hotel bookings. Whilst this was nevertheless an increase, the fact that it was not a particularly significant one emphasizes the precarious nature of businesses at the moment, which as the figures show are now clearly less willing than before to travel and invest, due clearly to the current uncertainty of the economy at this time.
