Belfast's hotels amongst UK cities' top performers

Looking forward, resilient European economies, the continued popularity of Mediterranean leisure destinations and Europe’s importance for business travellers, should continue to drive hotel occupancy and revenues in 2017, according to the latest PwC European Cities Hotel Forecast.

In the key hotel performance measures of increasing the Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenues per Available Room (RevPAR), Belfast hotels topped the list of the 22 UK cities examined. The city was also number three in terms of increasing occupancy levels amongst its top hotels over the year.

In the year to December 2016, Belfast hotels increased their ADR by 7.7% and was the top performing city and ahead of Birmingham (7.6%), Brighton (7.1%) and significantly ahead of the UK average increase of 1.6%. Belfast was also the top 2016 performer in the RevPAR measure, with local hotels boosting average RevPAR by 9%, ahead of Birmingham (8.2%) and York (6.2%) and again well ahead of the UK average of 1.4%.

Occupancy levels saw the third highest annual increase of 1.3%, after Norwich (3.3%) and Cardiff (1.4%), as compared to an average that actually declined by 0.2%.

The ADR in Belfast is moving steadily upwards and, in 2016, had increased to £70.50, just above the regional average of £69.75 and was ninth amongst the 22 cities reviewed.

“Belfast is increasingly becoming a ‘must-visit’ destination and the above average performance increases during 2016 indicate this is having a direct financial benefit,” said Martin Cowie, Northern Ireland partner and private sector leader.

“It is import that the city continues to reinvent itself and strive to create new attractions and refresh those that are already successful. It is also important to create demand and attractions that draw tourists, visitors and events in the shoulder and off-seasons.