The state of the economy and the financial turmoil in the eurozone will continue to be the most critical factors affecting UK hotel demand in 2013, according to the latest HotStats research from consultants TRI Hospitality.

However, post-Olympic blues will not aversely affect businesses, with 78.6 per cent of London hotels and almost 47.5 per cent of provincial UK hoteliers expressing optimism for the last quarter of 2012.

HotStats’ latest Hotel Confidence Monitor-UK Regions report stated that economic factors were the main concerns for 50.9 per cent of London hotel general managers and 34.6 per cent of provincial general managers. The idea that London would suffer a post-Olympics slump only concerned 7.7 per cent of London GMs.

Going against some recent claims of post-Olympic gloom, the report stated that the: “Legacy impact of the Olympic Games is unsurprisingly expected to be more of a long term gain… with almost 54 per cent of London hoteliers expecting an increase in business in the fourth quarter of this year compared with the same quarter in 2011.”  Exactly the same percentage of London hoteliers suggested that the Olympics would have no effect on their business in the next three months, while no hoteliers answering the survey believe that the Olympics will have a negative effect on their bottom lines.

Mark Dickens, managing director of HotStats, commented: “The major influences on performance for UK hoteliers are expected to remain the same as in recent years, with the state of our economy and the lack of a resolution in the European crisis being the primary concerns. Additionally, the recovery in the strength of sterling poses a real threat to leisure demand levels at hotels throughout the UK, a sector which has been the saviour of demand for many provincial markets throughout the recession.”

Three-quarters of both London and provincial UK GMs thought that their revenue per available room (RevPAR) during 2013 would be the same as or better than 2012, while long-range expectations for 2014 appeared to be more positive, with more than 90 per cent of hoteliers in London, 80 per cent in provincial markets, expecting growth compared with the same quarter of 2012.

Pictured: Mark Dickens