Political turmoil and natural disasters created “pronounced volatility” for hotel prices worldwide in the first half of 2011.
The average price of a room rose by just 3%, but this masked steep rises and falls in regions affected by the historic events in the first six months of the year, according to the latest Hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI).
The uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East triggered substantial and widespread reductions in hotel prices as civil unrest in a few countries left tourists and business travellers avoiding the region as a whole.
Conversely, the fall in consumer confidence was good news for destinations in southern Europe as travellers returned to more traditional destinations. The rising demand pushed up prices in some Spanish sun destinations and the overall HPI for Europe rose 2% compared with the first half of last year.
Ireland was also helped by the high-profile visits of the Queen and President Obama, which triggered a slight market recovery in hotel prices. Prices fell 6% in Asia Pacific year-on-year but rose in all other areas, increasing by 4% in North America, by 2% in Europe and Latin America and by 1% in the Caribbean.
The Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis at Fukushima led to reduced occupancy and falling demand in the country and also had a knock-on effect in other parts of Asia as the Japanese chose to stay close to home.
Despite the downward price pressures, there were also some marked rises in the region, especially in strong economies such as Australia where corporate travel continued to grow strongly and the Australian dollar remained high.
Strong currencies and economies meant travellers from nations such as Brazil, Sweden and Switzerland benefited from lower prices in many destinations, particularly the US and UK where the US dollar and sterling struggled to hold their ground.
Hotels.com president David Roche said: “This year, for the first time, dramatic political and natural world events, such as the Japanese earthquake and Arab Spring, have caused the most pronounced level of hotel price volatility.
“However, despite some exceptional price movements, it is important to highlight that overall the picture has been one of gradual recovery with many room rates still on a par with what they were seven years ago, representing great value for the traveller.
“Of course, other factors such as foreign exchange fluctuations, one-off political sporting, cultural or trade events and discounting by hoteliers can also influence prices but it’s important to underline the general health of the sector so far this year.
“This can be seen by the growth in the supply of rooms all over the world with nearly 6,000 hotel projects in development. This increase in accommodation also acts as a brake on prices and, once again, is good news for the consumer.”