UK leading Europe in hotel occupancy recovery

The UK continues to lead Europe in hotel occupancy with four straight weeks above 60% to 18 July, according to STR data.

The UK's highest weekly occupancy level (63.5%) came during 12-18 July, but that was still significantly lower than the occupancy achieved during the comparable week from July 2019 (84.5%).

Thomas Emanuel, STR's director, said: "Demand is almost exclusively leisure-driven as the UK has benefitted from a successful vaccination program, a phased reopening and improved travel sentiment overall. Other countries are showing improvement in recent weeks for those very same reasons, but this is still far from a normal summer in Europe."

During the week 12-18 July, a handful of European countries showed continued week-over-week improvement in occupancy levels: Ireland (54.3%), Spain (53.7%), France (51.4%), Italy (51.1%), Poland (50.1%), Switzerland (44.0%) and the Netherlands (43.6%).

Emanuel added: "Some European markets have been more successful than others in pulling themselves up from pandemic low points despite a massive void in international arrivals. Overall, Europe has a way to go before the region is back to pre-pandemic levels."

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