In both Paris and the provinces, in top-of-the-range hotels as well as in the economy segment, the picture is the same: business travellers limited their trips in May, taking advantage of the fact that the calendar was affected by numerous public holidays. "The May bank holidays had a negative impact on the occupancy rate in the French hotel industry", summarises the introduction to the Deloitte report, which adds: "Business travellers limited their trips because of the calendar, and availability was not taken up by leisure travellers, who were put off by the weather and the economic situation". Overall, the occupancy rate fell by around 2%, with several notable trends. These include the decline in the Paris hotel sector, which is generally protected from fluctuations by the balance between tourists and business travellers: only the luxury sector is seeing an increase in occupancy rates, while the declines are becoming more and more marked as we move downmarket: top-of-the-range (-3%), mid-range (-4.5%) and economy (-5%) hotels are seeing red in May. The decline was even more marked in the provinces, where the drop exceeded 10% in the luxury segment, with the mid-range (-6.2%) and economy (-6.8%) hotels also marking time compared to last year. In 2011, the calendar had been more favourable to hoteliers in the business segment, with public holidays falling on weekends on several occasions.
Source: "Hotel performance in France - May 2012".
2012 In Extenso National
