MKG Group’s annual report on France’s hotel industry shows that activity bounced back in 2010 after a catastrophic 2009. According to MKG, revenue per available room (revPAR) increased last year by 6.4%, following a drop of 8.5% in 2009. Average occupancy increased by 2.5 points to 65.3%.
Among the best regional performers, Paris enjoyed healthy growth rates due to an increase in the average occupancy in four- and five-star hotels as business travellers returned to the French capital. The occupancy rate in Paris neared 80%, while revPAR was up by 11.5%. Outside Paris, hoteliers in Metz, Nice and Montpellier also recorded favourable trends. RevPAR was up 12.2% in Metz, 9.9% in Nice and 9.6% in Montpellier.
However, MKG remains critical of the lack of investments in France’s hotel industry. Total hotel capacity in France stands at 660,000 rooms, far behind the million rooms available in competing countries such as Italy and Spain. MKG attributes this weakness to a lack of involvement of the French authorities in stimulating investments and a high share of independent hotels (50% of all available rooms), with limited resources to implement comprehensive modernisation programmes. The consultancy estimates that 2011 will see a further improvement in the French hotel market, with a growth of revPAR between 6.5% and 8.5%.
