Nov 26 2008
Italy Shows Steep Declines For October
According to the latest hotel data from STR Global, Italian revenue per available room (RevPAR) dopped 20 percent to €99 for October.
For Italian hoteliers it’s nothing new. Declines have been back to back since May 2008. Turin was the only city to show growth, up 18-percent from the previous month.
Room occupancy dropped 13% across Italy from October 2007 to October 2008. The dark numbers from October worsen the already dreary year-to-date figures when compared to year to October 2007 figures.
“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”.
