A 5% drop in the number of hotel guest nights was recorded by the French hospitality industry last year. More than double decrease was recorded for foreign guests.
French hotel industry recorded a decline of almost 5% of guest nights in 2009, announced Protourisme, a market analyst company. The results correspond with earlier reports published by Deloitte and KPMG – the French hotel industry went through quite a turmoil in 2009 resulting in a drop of almost 5% of nights, which represents a loss of 9 million nights compared to 2008.
Among the 26 regions of France, Midi-Pyrénées was the most affected by the decrease in the number of guest nights (-14%). Other regions that announced significant decline are Île-de-France (6% less guest nights) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d"Azur (6.5% less guest nights). In the rest of the country, the decrease was not that substantial.
According to Protourisme, the drop was partly caused by decreasing numbers of international guests. Hotels recorded 7.5 million less guest nights of foreign tourists in 2009, which is a decline of about 11%. As a result the French hotel industry lost approximately €1.5 billion last year when compared to 2008. Nearly half of the loss was recorded by 4 star hotels whose revenue per available room fell by more than 15%. Related: CHINESE TOURISTS NOW THE BIGGEST SPENDERS IN FRANCE FRENCH HOTEL CLASSIFICATION REFORMED