Birmingham's hotel industry has experienced a boost with an increase in both hotel occupancy and room rates throughout the city and wider area.

Hotel occupancy in Birmingham city centre increased 7% year on year in March 2010, from 69% in 2009 to 76% this year. The wider Birmingham area, including the NEC, has also seen a large increase with hotel occupancy rising 11% from 53% in March 2009 to 64% in the same month this year. Birmingham compares favourably with the rest of the UK which experienced a 2% increase to 68% in March this year .  

Weekday occupancy rates were higher than weekend rates across the board. Therefore, the occupancy rise can be attributed to increased amount of people staying over and doing business in the city. The biggest peak was in November 2009 which saw over three quarters of city centre hotel rooms occupied (79%), compared to 77% the previous year. Conferences hosted by Birmingham in that month include the NHS Employers Annual Conference & Exhibition. Other notable peaks are in June and September with 71% and 75% respectively. This includes delegates staying in the city for the 100th Rotary International Convention in June.

As well as occupancy, revenue per available room (RevPAR) has increased by 9.8% to £48.63 for city centre hotels from March 2009 to March 2010. Likewise, the wider Birmingham area also saw an increase of 3% compared to last March. RevPAR peaked in November 2009 at £53.29 and £62.79 for the city centre and wider Birmingham area respectively.

The number of bed spaces has also increased from 27,800 in 2008 to 28,651 the following year. The growing hotel capacity has enabled the city to attract more high profile events including the Conservative Party Conference in October and the European Championships in Gymnastics which took place last month.

Ian Taylor, Commercial Director at Marketing Birmingham, comments on these figures: "Birmingham has shown a good performance in a tough trading environment. Although the UK is officially out of the recession, the economic climate remains difficult. 

However these figures show the city's hotel sector is well placed to recover relatively quickly. The city has a strong conference and exhibition sector and is now a regular on the Political party conference circuit. Furthermore, the successful hosting of Rotary international Convention in June 2009 has reinforced the city's position as an international conference destination."

Michael Mason, general manager of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Birmingham, says: "We are still in challenging times but the results clearly show how the partnership approach that has developed between Marketing Birmingham, event venues and the hotel sector in securing major events can be so beneficial to the city and the wider area.

"We are still in challenging times so it is crucial that the focus is maintained on winning world wide as well as national events to ensure these results can be built on."

For further information on Marketing Birmingham please visit their website here: www.marketingbirmingham.com