Member Article

March record for Manchester hotel occupancy

New hotel occupancy data supplied by STR Global Ltd and released by Visit Manchester shows that Manchester city centre achieved its strongest March on record with the average reaching 81%.

This represents a 4% rise on March 2013 figures (77%) and a 7% rise on the March average from the years 2000-2013 (74%).

A 98% occupancy rate was reached on Saturday 15 March, a day that saw Miranda Hart perform at the Phones 4u Arena, National Cycling Centre hosting the BMX National Series and Manchester Central hosting the National Wedding Show.

The 98% rate was also achieved on two weekday nights – Wednesday 19 March and Tuesday 25 March – and overall weekday nights jumped from 73% last year to 78%.

Business tourism played an important part in boosting the overall March occupancy figure – particularly for midweek nights.

Conferences which drew overnight visitors to the city included: the International Conference on Urban Health 2014 (4-7 March, 1,000 delegates), International Bioenergy Conference 2014 (11-13 March, 300 delegates), Northern Restaurant and Bar (17-18 March, 3,000 delegates) and HC2014 National Health IT Conference (19-20 March, 700 delegates)and the Federation of Small Business 2014 (27-29 March, 800 delegates).

Andrew Stokes, chief executive of Marketing Manchester, said: “This is the first time that the city’s hotels have achieved over 80% average occupancy for the month of March - boosted, in no small part, by the many and varied events on offer throughout the month.

“We are particularly pleased with the increase in weekday occupancy rates as this highlights the importance of business tourism, where conferences and meetings with large numbers of delegates help to provide a higher baseline on nights that would ordinarily be much quieter.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .