Rising popularity of the Mediterranean as a vacation destination, growing importance of Europe for business travelers and resilient economy of the region will help hotels increase their revenues in 2017 and 2018. This information is stated in the latest European Cities Hotel Forecast published by PwC.
Indeed, last year many European destinations had to struggle with after-effects of terror attacks, but overall 2016 was another breaking year for the hotel industry. The region was visited by 12 million more visitors. In total, travelers spent 2.8 billion nights in Europe, and the trend is expected to continue, mostly thanks to the influx of tourists from Asia and the United States.
Almost all popular destinations are expected to grow their revenues this year. PwC only name hotels in Geneva and Zurich as ones that are to face troubles this year. Porto hotels are named leaders and are expected to add 14.8% in 2017. They are followed by hotels in Dublin, Budapest, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Prague, Frankfurt and Paris.
The growth of tourism in 2017 is expected to reach 2% 3% according to the UN World Tourism Organization. The strengthening dollar is another reason for the growing popularity of Europe as a travel destination, and the weakened pound will help London hotels achieve great results. When it comes to occupancy, Dublin hotels are on the top spot with the occupancy of 83%. They are followed by London (82%), and Amsterdam (78%). In 2018, Barcelona hotels are expected to overtake Amsterdam and become the top three most occupied hotels in Europe. In terms of room price per night, the top list for this year is the following: Geneva hotels (300.2 euro), Zurich (244.9 euro), Paris (229 euro), London (164 euro), Rome (148.2 euro), Barcelona, Dublin, Milan, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.