Italy’s hotel data shows steep declines in October

Nov 27, 08 | 1:58 am

The latest hotel performance data available from STR Global shows Italian revenue per available room dropping 20 percent to €99 for October. Italian hoteliers have seen declines in RevPAR since May 2008, and October was no different as Turin was the lone major city to report RevPAR growth-it was up 18 percent.

Across Italy, October occupancy dropped 13 percentage points from October 2007 to 66 percent, and the month's average room rates declined 9 percent from last year to €149. The October results worsen the year-to-date figures when compared with year-to-October 2007. The first 10 months of 2008 show a 6-percent occupancy decline to 61 percent, a 2-percent drop in average rate to €150, and an 8-percent decrease in RevPAR to €92.

Year-to-October 2008 results for selected Italian markets                    

Source: STR Global

"Demand has been falling in the main Italian cities since spring this year", commented James Chappell, managing director of STR Global. "Milan and Turin have only started to see declining demand levels since July and September, respectively, which will put pressures upon their occupancy and average rate levels as we have seen in other Italian cites".

"So far, Turin countered the country-wide trend through its increased marketing activities, increased cultural events and MICE (meeting, incentive, conference and event) business", said Marco Malacrida, area director of STR Global in Italy. "The city's increased destination marketing campaigns in national and international media, promoting multiple cultural and gastronomic events, combined with addition of new branded hotels and refurbishment of existing room stock boosted Turin's hotel offering".

For more information regarding data from Italy and other countries around the world, please visit www.strglobal.com.


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