The oil and gas industry gave the hotel industry a boost across Scotland in November as occupancy levels north of the border were the highest in the UK outside London, new figures show.
A monthly hotel survey found that Scottish hotel occupancy was 74.2%, compared with 72.7% across UK regions and 72.5% in England.
Rooms yield – the industry term for revenue – in Scotland was £52.73 compared with £45.14 in regional UK and £43.91 in England, the survey by BDO found.
Once again prices for hotel rooms in Aberdeen, at £78.83, were the highest outside of London as major industry events filled hotel rooms, BDO said.
But while the city’s hoteliers operate “in something of a bubble” thanks to the oil industry, the researchers behind the report said there was some evidence that events – such as the Stereophonics gig at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference centre during the month – were also a driver of hotel occupancy.
The firm also noted that Inverness performed strongly in the month where revenue rose 29.2% to £37.10 and occupancy was healthy at 62.1% thanks in part to an event featuring 1980s pop stars including Rick Astley.
Alastair Rae, a property leisure and hospitality partner at BDO, said: “Aberdeen continues to operate in something of a bubble compared to the rest of the UK as the oil sector boosts hotel business.
“An indication that this boom in Aberdeen is business rather than leisure oriented can be seen by the level of revenue.
“During November the Aberdeen revenue was higher than the revenue for all tourist hotels in London and was considerably higher than any other part of the UK which, naturally, tends to dip in tourism income during November.”
Mr Rae continued: “Inverness also had a strong performance with revenue growing 29.2% to £37.10, albeit from a relatively low base, and this was due in part to the Scotland Town conference as well as the 80s Party Concert with Rick Astley.”
Steve Harris, chief executive of Visit Aberdeen – the destination marketing organisation for the city – said the figures showed the fruits of a marketing campaign.
He said: “There is no doubt that the city was very busy in the run-up to Christmas as a result of several campaigns which were aimed to attract Christmas shoppers to Aberdeen. Our partners in the Aberdeen City and Shire Hotels Association supported a comprehensive 13-week radio campaign in the run up to December to promote the city across Scotland as a pre-Christmas short break option.
“We also ran PR campaigns where we invited journalists from across the UK to visit the city earlier in the year and to print features about Aberdeen’s shopping and food and drink offering and this seems to also have had a very positive effect on the pre-Christmas numbers.”
