City’s hotel outlook strong
With 800 hotel bedrooms set to be delivered across Greater Manchester in the next six months, Marketing Manchester has released data showing 2014 as the best year for hotel occupancy in the city centre since records began.
Manchester achieved an average annual occupancy rate of 79%, up on the success of 2013 when rates matched the previous highs in 2006 and 2007 of 77%.
A new best was achieved at a Greater Manchester level as the average annual occupancy reached 77%, up from 76% in 2013.
Almost 800 new hotel bedrooms are due to delivered across the city region in the coming months, including Motel One with 330 rooms, Innside by Melia with 208, Hotel Football with 138, Hotel Gotham with 66 and King Street Townhouse with 40.
The data was supplied by STR Global. Data collection for the city centre began in 2000, while records for Greater Manchester started in 2010.
According to Marketing Manchester, the agency charged with promoting the city region, the strength of the hotel market in and around Manchester looks set to continue into 2016.
Nick Brooks-Sykes, director of tourism at Marketing Manchester, said: "To see figures continue to rise alongside ever-expanding bedroom stock speaks volumes about the current health of our tourism industry.
"The strength of the latest occupancy rates suggest that there is plenty of opportunity for new operators coming into the market in Greater Manchester and the current 800 new rooms planned for 2015 should go some way to make sure that when we have large events on, the city region is able to cater for all of those who want to stay. Looking ahead to 2016 there is a good number of hotels in the pipeline including a new Holiday Inn at Aytoun Street, Hotel Future in Oldham and Hotel Indigo on Corporation Street as well as a number of developments at Airport City.
"This is really good news for Greater Manchester and reflects the hard work of many organisations and people in developing and promoting our destination. But we cannot afford to be complacent; Manchester is competing for tourism on an international stage and competition is fierce. We must therefore continue to work together and make best use of our marketing resources to continue to grow the tourism industry of the region and which supports so many jobs."
