Hotel performances across Europe are now back to positive trend.

European Cities Marketing released findings from its latest “European Destinations Observatory” produced by MKG Hospitality which indicate strong disparities in 2013 but a return to positive trends for almost all European countries.

Since the beginning of the year, nearly all European countries follow a positive trend, hotel activity indicators in the green.

Southern Europe continued to take full benefit of the summer season, particularly Italy which improved its Revenue per available room by 4.6%. If Roma sees a drop in RevPAR, other Italian cities show good performances, especially Venice which recorded a 16.2% ADR growth.

Not far behind, with an increase of 1.4% in RevPAR, Spanish hoteliers benefitted from record attendance figures this summer and from holding international events, like the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona at the beginning of August.

France experienced a stabilization of RevPAR. Paris market which is the engine of French market recorded a 0.5% RevPAR variation. Only Sweden is the exception and posted RevPAR decreases of 1.5%. In the case of the United Kingdom, London experienced a decrease because of the absence of the London 2012 Olympics which had allowed hoteliers to considerably boost their average daily rates.

After a favorable July for hotel chain activity, Europe continued on this trajectory in August. With an occupancy rate approaching 74% and an average daily rate of more than 99 Euros, the sector ended the summer season on a positive note. This was achieved by a 3.7% rise in Revenue per available room, to 73.3 Euros, mainly due to the 3 point improvement in the occupancy rate which compensated for a loss of 0.2% in terms of average daily rates.

Ignasi De Delas, president of European Cities Marketing commented: “The performances of upscale segment continued to improve, with a 5.2% growth in Revenue per available room, which contributed to the good performances over the whole Europe. As far as the other categories, they maintained their indicators despite Europe's current morose economic context and the absence of large events to animate their activity.”