Advantage reports rise in corporate hotel bookings despite Brexit uncertainty
Brexit uncertainty is failing to dampen business travel hotel bookings, according to figures released this week by Advantage Travel Partnership.
Its 2017 Hotel Market Report, based on corporate hotel bookings, showed Advantage’s ‘Top 250 UK Cities’ enjoyed an overall increase of 9.5% in room nights booked despite economic uncertainty following the Brexit vote.
London got the most bookings and was up 10% year-on-year but mich higher growth came from cities in the north of the UK.
The top 10 UK cities for year-on-year growth were:
1 Blackpool – 55%
2 Peterborough – 48%
3 Preston – 35%
4 Bradford – 33%
5 Oxford – 25%
6 Sheffield – 24%
7 Cambridge – 22%
8 Edinburgh – 21%
9 Doncaster – 21%
10 Coventry – 20%
Neil Armorgie, Advantage global product director, said: "For British based businesses, uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the slowing of GDP growth make it a challenging time for all. It is therefore heartening to see the growth in business trips to our smaller populated cities in the north."
He said globally its TMC hotel bookings were up 8.4%, backed up with a 6.8% rise in the number of bookings and a longer average stay of 1.92 nights.
"The business travel hotel sector for independent TMCs continues to grow. An increase through all four quarters of 2017 puts our overall hotel business up by nearly 385,000 room nights versus 2016," he said.
"Despite scepticism and uncertainty in some economies, the business world is travelling and hotel occupancy is at record levels in many destinations."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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