Barcelona v Arsenal: Paris Wins in the Hotel Industry!

• The faultless organisation of the 2006 Champions League final and the good-spirited and incident-free arrival of countless English and Spanish football supporters have demonstrated once again Paris's flair for hosting international events.

• On Wednesday 17 May, occupancy rates of Parisian hotels were close to 100%.

• The third week in May was particularly spectacular with the annual Paris Course on Revascularization being held.

• Paris will presumably be the locomotive of the French hotel industry in 2006. MKG Consulting has confirmed its prediction of 4% to 6% growth in RevPAR at national level in 2006.

Results of the Chain Hotel Sector in Intramural Paris in 2006

Source: MKG Consulting Database - official supplier of hotel chains - May 2006
Hotelcompset
Average daily rates and RevPAR are expressed in euros inc. VAT


Parisian hotel results have been very positive since the beginning of the year, and May confirmed this trend with a peak in activity in the third week of the month. Occupancy rates and RevPAR have posted record levels.

On Tuesday 16 May, occupancy rates were already hovering at the 99% mark, and on Wednesday 17 May almost all hotels in intramural Paris were fully booked with 99.9% of occupancy.

The concurrence of several factors explains these exceptional results:

Firstly, Wednesday is traditionally a 'strong' day for hotel activity, largely due to higher numbers of business clienteles in the midweek. Secondly, Paris hosted the Champions League Final that evening. Paris is geographically situated between the two home cities of the finalists, London and Barcelona, and transport links between Paris and these cities are good. Finally, the third week of May saw the Paris Course on Revascularization being held from 16 to 19 May, a major event in the cardiology field with over 12,000 participants.

More generally, Parisian hotels are likely to post 2006 results along the following lines:

An average Easter weekend (-4.7% in RevPAR) was nothing more than a one-off blip for Parisian hotels. Indeed, Paris has posted much better results than the provinces (+9.3% in RevPAR from January to late April in Paris, as compared to just +5.8% in the rest of the Ile de France and +1.6% in the provinces).

The capital, which has proved to be one of the most appealing cities to companies, has confirmed its place amongst the leading destinations in the world. Growth in RevPAR recorded in the first trimester of 2006 places Paris at the head of European capitals alongside Madrid and ahead of London (+4.4%), Rome (+3.7%) and Berlin (-4.0%) for example.

Furthermore, MKG's predictions for 4% to 6% growth in RevPAR in France have remained unchanged, the French hotel industry clearly benefiting from dynamism in the capital.

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