Mostly driven by sporting and cultural events - Survey reveals that revPAR grew by more then 8%, in 2006 - double the growth seen in 2005.  

The Netherlands had an exceptionally strong year with revPAR up 11.4% – outperforming any other European country. Events celebrating the life of Rembrandt helped lure tourists, whilst the corporate market was boosted by a number of large trade fairs, including Intertraffic, Interclean and the World Gas Conference.  The country's capital, Amsterdam, almost came out on top – posting the second highest occupancy in Europe at 80.2%.

Germany had a record year in 2006 – posting double-digit increases for the first time since 2000.   The country enjoyed particularly strong growth in average room rates during the World Cup in June and July when over 2m football fans visited.  World Cup fever combined with more robust economic performance saw Germany finish the year with revPAR up 10.8% at €55.

RevPAR in the UK grew 9.6% - with Aberdeen, Belfast and London all experiencing double-digit increases. London was once more back on top – achieving the highest occupancy in Europe at 82.3%. In 2005 the city saw a drop in occupancy as a result of the terrorist attacks on the London underground system. In Aberdeen, revPAR increased 16.3% driven by strong weekday business and demand from North Sea oil activities. The story was similar in Belfast - which hosted a number of key conferences and events pushing revPAR up 12.5%.

Italy saw its fortunes change last year, with revPAR increasing 7.7% to €97, over double the rate of growth seen in 2005.  Improved economic conditions and high profile events helped hoteliers drive up both occupancy and average room rates.  Both Milan and Turin experienced double-digit revPAR growth. Turin's performance was bolstered by the Olympic Games in February, which saw revPAR shoot up 191%, reaching €176 and bypassing the likes of Rome and Venice for the first time. Whilst Milan enjoyed a boost in corporate travel due to the newly opened exhibition centre Fiera Milano.

Despite seeing the slowest growth in Europe – Spain still put in a strong performance – seeing revPAR grow by 5.9% on the prior year.  Across Spain, strong GDP growth has helped create business demand while leisure visitors have also been on the rebound. Valencia's hotels achieved especially good results, as the city hosted the 32nd America's Cup in June and July. The races attracted sailors from all over the world, which helped push the city's revPAR up by 15.7% in 2006.

Lorna Clarke, Executive Director of HotelBenchmark™ at Deloitte commented: "2006 was a great year for the European hotel industry. Strong economic performance, high profile international sporting and cultural events and the continued expansion of low-cost airlines all really helped drive hotel performance.   The outlook for 2007 remains good – however the rate of growth is likely to slow. This is very much in line with global economic and tourism indicators – which show performance cooling slightly this year.  Whilst there are some great high profile events coming Europe's way this year – such as the Rugby World Cup in France and the Tour de France starting in the UK for the first time ever – there are simply not the volume of these that we had last year."

The HotelBenchmark™ Survey by Deloitte contains the largest independent source of hotel performance data outside of North America and tracks the performance of over 7,000 hotels and 1.3 million rooms every month.

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