The hotel market in Scandinavia, a hot spot
for technology firms in Europe, suffered when the tech boom ended
in the late 1990s. But it appears as if the regions hotel industry
has recovered.
The Bench, a
hotel-tracking firm, says in its year-end report for 2005 that
properties in Scandinavia posted a 6.7% growth in RevPar, or
revenue per available room, which is an important gauge in
determining the health of the lodging market.
Copenhagen,
Denmark, and Oslo, Norway, were the strongest markets in the
region, posting 20% and 17% increases in RevPar,
respectively.
Scandinavia is a
rags-to-riches story, said Jamie Chappell, managing director of the
Bench.
Having suffered
during the downturn of the dot-com era, the turnaround in
performance is especially worth noting. It was driven by a
combination of a huge increase in low-cost flights to the region
and a conference year that was busier than normal.
Another bright spot
was the U.K.
The year-end report
found that hotels in the U.K. recorded an average 5.5% growth in
RevPar last year.
Hotels did best in
London and near its Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Other bright
spots were Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland; Cardiff, Wales; and
Manchester, Newcastle, Bath and Bristol in England.
Overall, however,
Aberdeen, Scotland, was the strongest performer in the U.K.,
posting a RevPar increase of 16%.
The increase in
RevPar in the U.K. was noteworthy since it occurred despite the
terrorist attacks in London on July 7 that killed 52
people.
Those bright spots
aside, European RevPar growth remains in the doldrums. The Bench
tallied the RevPar average growth for all of Europe at
2.2%.
The rest of Europe
remained fairly stagnant; that reflects the general state of French
and German economies, Chappell said.
Hotels in Germany
might get a boost from World Cup soccer games, which will be held
in 12 venues in that country in 2006.
The report, which
largely focused on five-, four- and three-star hotels, also found
Paris had the highest average room rate, elbowing past London,
which held the top spot in 2004.