In May 2010, the U.S. hotel industry’s occupancy was up 7.1 percent to 58.9 percent, ADR ended the month flat at US$97.50, and RevPAR increased 7.1 percent to finish at US$57.47, according to STR.
The U.S. luxury segment reported the largest increases in all three key hotel performance metrics for May 2010 compared to the same period last year.
Read, "STR: Upper tier leads
Whitbread expects to post better results for Q1, The Financial Times reports.
Shares in Whitbread, the owner of the Premier Inn budget hotel chain and Costa coffee stores, have underperformed other leading listed U.K. hotel companies in recent months.
The stock could flip Monday when the group issues its first-quarter trading update. Analysts expect the positive momentum that occurred during the fourth quarter of 2009 to have continued into this year. Both Costa and Premier should report like-for-like growth.
Social networking has quite a foothold on the world.
Globally, 74 percent of active Internet households visited a social networking site as of April, according to Nielsen’s Q1 2010 Consumer Confidence Survey.
Among the results:
• More than two-thirds of global consumers seek online product reviews, recommendations from discussion forums or social media sites when making a purchase decision.
• 21 percent of U.S. adults online publish or own a blog.
• 55 percent of U.S. adults online have 1 or more social networking profiles.
• 75 percent of the active U.S. Internet households visit a social networking site (May 2010).
Europeans are planning shorter holidays closer to home, according to The Wall Street Journal. In a snazzy interactive graphic, statistics from Gfk Custom Research Academy Brussels indicate that more than half of Europeans are planning trips this year within their own country. And the European holiday might be disappearing: the majority of respondents (58 percent) are planning trips of “about two weeks” or “about one week.”
With WSJ subscription, check out the charts here.
In India, domestic tourists are outnumbering foreign travelers with regard to their stay in heritage hotels, the Times of India reports.
“More and more Indian travelers are checking into heritage hotels. The ratio was 80:20 earlier with foreigners leading the chart. But now in the lead are the domestic tourists with 60:40 percentage," said Maharaj Gaj Sigh, president, Indian Heritage Hotels Association.
Compiled by Stacey Higgins.
