Even though the fourth quarter of 2011 slowed down the growth achieved in spring 2011, the year was positive for the majority of European countries. 27 countries of the region ended the year with growth and no country finished 2011 with decline in RevPAR. However, there’s quite a big difference between the countries, for example, the modest growth of Swedish accommodations (+1.8%) and the growth of revenues of hotels in Poland (+9.3%). The traditionally popular hotels markets of Europe, such as France, Germany, the UK, and the Benelux, ended 2011 with the growth between 4.5% and 6%. These figures show more realistic state of the market at the moment.
The average occupancy in Europe estimated 66% in 2011. This is better than in 2010 and much better than in 2009 that suffered from the consequences of the global crisis. Of course, large European capitals and important business cities are the leaders. These are such cities as London, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg. Here the average yearly occupancy was around 75%. The only countries with slight declines of occupancy (around 1.5%) are Austria and Sweden.
Even though the beginning of 2012 looks tough due to problems in Eurozone, experts foresee the market to finish the year with the growth of RevPAR between 2% and 4%.