The UK continues to lead Europe in hotel occupancy with four straight weeks above 60% in the metric, according to STR data through 18 July.
“Demand is almost exclusively leisure-driven as the UK has benefitted from a successful vaccination program, a phased reopening and improved travel sentiment overall,” said Thomas Emanuel, STR’s Director. “Other countries are showing improvement in recent weeks for those very same reasons, but this is still far from a normal summer in Europe.’
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%).
Also during the week of 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%).
“Some European markets have been more successful than others in pulling themselves up from pandemic low points despite a massive void in international arrivals”, said Emanuel. “Overall, Europe has a way to go before the region is back to pre-pandemic levels.”
