Staycation visitors boost Scottish tourism trade

Hotels north of the border outperform rest of the UK, with revenue up 5%

Hotels in Scotland outperformed those in the rest of the UK last year, helped by an influx of overseas visitors and a rise in the number of Britons holidaying closer to home, according to a report.

The latest Hotel Britain report from accountants and business advisers BDO reveals Scotland posted the strongest performance in the UK in 2017, with average room yield, or revenue, growing by almost 5% in a year to £56.70.

This compared to a rise of just over 4% in Wales, 2.2% in Northern Ireland and just under 2% in England.

The report states: “The story of Scottish hotels in 2017 is one of great success.

“The boom in tourism following the depreciation of the pound after the Brexit vote has attracted recordbreaking overseas visitor numbers to Scotland as well as the rest of the UK.”

Edinburgh was the top-performing city outside of London last year, according to the publication.

Benefiting from strong leisure and corporate demand, the Scottish capital boasted the highest occupancy levels of any UK city at 85%, an increase of 1.8% on the previous year.

The occupancy rate for Glasgow increased slightly to 83.2%.

However, Aberdeen, which has been hit by the oil industry downturn, experienced the lowest hotel occupancy rate in the UK at 63.4% – a decline of more than 5% on the figures for 2016.

UK-wide, BDO said overseas visitor numbers grew for the eighth consecutive year, setting a new annual record at 38.9 million.

Spending in the leisure and hospitality market also hit record levels at £24.3 billion in 2017, up 8% year on year.

Martin Gill, partner and head of BDO in Scotland, said: “2017 proved to be a fantastic year of growth where Scotland outperformed the rest of the UK. Edinburgh was clearly the top performer and Glasgow had another positive year.

“Looking ahead, Scotland has an active pipeline with over 1,600 hotel rooms expected to open during 2018 and 2019.

“The strong performance demonstrates the industry’s robustness despite facing EU uncertainty and an increase in supply.

“The Scottish hotel industry will hope to continue to benefit from the weak pound, which will attract overseas visitors and, indeed, the domestic market as the UK continues its ‘staycation nation’ status.

“The inaugural European Championships multi-sport event in Glasgow this summer will undoubtedly drive a further increase in overall visitor numbers for 2018.”

Hotel Britain is compiled from the responses of a representative cross-section of 649 hotels. It includes 141 London hotels and 508 in the rest of the country.

Picture: Steve MacDougall. Hotels such as Gleneagles have benefited from overseas visitors enjoying the weak pound.