Tourism market research specialists LJ Research, have revealed that Aberdeen hoteliers were hit with a drop in profitability in January, while Glasgow and Edinburgh showed modest overall growth. The good news is that looking ahead, a positive outlook for the next 3 months was recorded with forward bookings up by roughly 2% compared to last year.
The figures for January reveal that, despite falling by 2.9% compared to last year, demand for accommodation was highest in Glasgow as the city achieved 63.5% room occupancy during the month. In Aberdeen occupancy was only marginally below that of Glasgow at 63.4% (down by 2.8% from last year) as a troubled oil and gas sector continues to weaken corporate demand in the Granite City. Meanwhile, in Edinburgh room occupancy reached 59.9% (falling 0.8% compared to last year).
Whilst room occupancy fell in Glasgow, room revenues continued to grow with January marking the 13th consecutive month of Average Room Rate (ARR) growth. The average cost of a room in the city stood at £59.50 which was 3.1% higher than a year ago. Factoring in occupancy and room revenue performance, average Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) – the industry’s main performance measure – in Glasgow was £37.81 (up by 0.8% compared to the buoyant performance of January 2014 when double digit RevPAR growth was recorded compared to January 2013).