Sales at hotels in London were up by almost a third during the month of July 2006, according to the latest data from TRI Hospitality Consulting's HotStats survey.

Room revenue per available room soared by 29.9 per cent to reach £100.71, breaking into three figures. Both occupancy and rate showed big increases, with rate up 17.7 percent to £112.62 and occupancy ahead by 8.4 points to reach 89.4 percent.

"During the same month a year ago we saw a much more subdued performance due to the London bombings. These figures show that the hotel industry has fully recovered from that slump and is racing ahead once more. July 2005 saw room revpar drop by 2.9 per cent on the same month in 2004. This year, room revpar has more than made up the ground it lost last year," said Jonathan Langston, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting.

In the provinces, which were much less affected by the terrorist incidents of a year ago, the performance in July 2006 was steadier, showing a 3.9 percent rise in room revpar. Occupancy was virtually flat, rising just 0.1 points, and rate rose by 3.9 percent to hit £70.33. Looking at the year-to-date shows room revpar ahead by 10.4 per cent in the UK capital and up a more modest 3.4 percent in the provinces.

Average Room rates at London hotels for the year-to-date are now above £100 at £100.51, thanks to a 5.9 percent increase. Occupancy is up 3.4 points to 82.3 percent. The provinces, in contrast, saw a flat occupancy at 70.1 percent and an increase in room rate of 3.3 percent.

"London is again a star performer although it should be remembered that the UK capital has also suffered disproportionately in the recent past, as we saw a year ago," said Langston.

Official visitor figures

The volume of overseas visitors to the UK is continuing to show substantial increases, according to official Government statistics. From all source markets the numbers were up eight per cent to hit 8.5 million for the three months to the end of June.

North America was strong with an 11 per cent rise while the biggest source market, Western Europe, was up nine per cent. Overall spending by overseas visitors was up eight per cent to £3.85bn.

UKinbound, the official trade body representing the inbound tourism industry in the UK, said that its regular monthly business barometer showed only modest increases in visitor arrivals during June, with a 0.9 percent increase compared to the same month last year. Forward bookings were up just 0.2 percent.

The organisation said that the figures were better than expected given the strong performance a year earlier and the difficult trading conditions for UK exporters.

Airports operator BAA said that July saw a 3.1 percent increase in passenger numbers at its seven UK airports. A total of 15 million passengers was handled, the biggest number ever in a single month.
European scheduled traffic was up 7.4 percent but charter dropped 5.9 percent and UK domestic traffic was down 1.9 percent.

North Atlantic routes were up 0.2 percent and other long haul grew 8.4 percent. The fastest growing among the long haul routes was India, showing a 55.4 percent increase.