York hotels are in demand (From York Press)

York hotels are in demand

9:13am Saturday 4th February 2012 in Business news By Haydn Lewis, haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk

TOURISM bosses in York are celebrating after the city’s hotels left their rivals around the country trailing behind.

Demand for hotel rooms in the city held steady despite the economic downturn, with the city ranking second in a league of occupancy rates for 2011, compiled by industry analyst STR Global.

Their annual report looked at data from 2,700 hotels in 51 cities across the country and found that the highest occupancy was achieved at Heathrow Airport with 82.7 per cent; followed by Edinburgh and York, both reaching 80.1 per cent.

Visit York has revealed that visits to the city’s main attractions were higher in 2011 than in 2010, while hotel and room rates were on a par with 2010.

A spokeswoman said the creativity of York’s hotels and attractions in luring people in as well as the success of Visit York marketing campaigns and new festivals such as Aesthetica Short Film Festival, all contributed to the success, while the city’s new state-of-the-art visitor information centre has also proved a hit.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of Visit York, said the city had also seen investment in many of its main attractions, including the Yorkshire Museum, Jorvik Viking Centre and the Barbican Centre .

Mrs Cruddas said: “This is fantastic news for York’s economy and tourism businesses in the city. In the summer months we saw the biggest month on month gains for over five years with visits to attractions up more than four per cent year on year and room occupancy reaching 88 per cent during July to September, the best results we have seen in five years. Average room rates during the summer were also two per cent higher than for the same period of 2010, at £84.48 as opposed to £82.68 per year.

“Our message that York is a world class, must-see tourism destination is reaching out far and wide and we look forward to an even more successful year as we celebrate our 800th anniversary year.”