Russian cities best-placed for hotel growth: PwC

St Petersburg and Moscow are expected to have the highest hotel sector growth rates in 2013, according to a new PwC report.

Entitled ‘Thriving or Surviving’, the PwC report provides an outlook for 19 of Europe’s most important gateway cities, representing 650,000 hotel rooms and over 85 million international arrivals.

The report predicts St Petersburg will see 7.3% RevPAR (revenue per available room) growth in euro terms, followed by Moscow (5.2%) Paris (5.0%) Frankfurt (3.5%), Berlin (3.2%) and
Dublin (3.1%).

In local currency terms Paris tops the charts with 5.0% RevPAR growth – closely followed by St Petersburg, (4.8%), Edinburgh (4.0%), Frankfurt, Berlin and Dublin.

In general, the European hotel industry faces a more competitive and challenging environment in 2013 than in 2012 when many cities proved remarkably resilient despite the eurozone crisis and economic slowdown.

Four cities are expected to have enjoyed double-digit RevPAR growth in 2012: St Petersburg (14.1%), Dublin (13.9%), Prague (13.1%) and Moscow (12.9%), with almost double-digit growth in Berlin (9.6%) and Paris (9.0%).

Continuing economic headwinds are likely to hold back growth in 2013. RevPAR growth is expected to slow in 2013 and there will be no double-digit gains in any of the cities surveyed.

Softer trading is expected in London after three record years and above-average supply increases. The UK capital is forecast to book the biggest RevPAR decline at 7.9%, followed by Madrid (-5.8%) Amsterdam (-3.2%), Zurich (-1.3%), Brussels (-1.2%), Rome (-1.1%) and Geneva (-0.3%).

Click on the link below for the full report.