Positive outlook for hotel industry in 2017

The hotel industry is in for a good year, according to the 2017 Global Hotel Trends Report from leading wholesale travel brokerage company Tourico Holidays.

The recently-released report provides a look at the health of the hotel industry and offers insight on which destinations are trending with consumers as we head into the new year.

Tourico examined hotel booking data from nearly 80,000 hotel properties in more than 4,500 destinations around the world, and compared it to booking data captured at the same time last year, revealing where traveller interests have shifted.

According to the 2017 Report, nearly all the world’s major travel regions are currently outpacing their prior year hotel bookings, indicating a very healthy outlook for the hotel industry and tourism in general. Collectively, the total number of hotel room nights booked has increased significantly, growing 28.7 per cent around the globe.

As a source market, North America has increased its hotel room nights booked for 2017 by 28 per cent year-on-year compared to this time in 2016. The EU, as a source, has increased its room nights by 28 per cent year-on-year, LATAM by 43 per cent and Asia-Pacific by 23 per cent.

Lauren Volcheff Atlass

‘Extremely encouraging’

Lauren Volcheff Atlass, Tourico’s executive vice president of Global Sales, said: “It’s still early, but it’s extremely encouraging to see that booked hotel room nights for 2017 are already significantly outpacing 2016.

“Even despite attempts to frighten people away from traveling, the industry is not only surviving, but thriving – and the hotel sector in particular, continues to grow.”

Strong regional outlooks for 2017 are being buoyed by major tourist countries throughout the world. Room nights booked in the United States have increased by 26 percent year-on-year, while the UK’s booked room nights for 2017 have increased by 38 per cent year-on-year.

China has increased its booked room nights by 52 per cent, while others, including Canada (+55%), Mexico (+37%), Brazil (+31%), UAE (+65% YoY), Thailand (+29%), Australia (+10%), and Sweden (+112%) have also seen significant growth in hotel room nights booked for 2017.

“Tourism continues to be a major driver in the world’s economy, and a key indicator of its health can be measured by the growth in hotel bookings,” added Volcheff Atlass. “That said, the data revealed by the Trends Report not only serves our business, but others in the travel ecosystem.”