The Commonwealth Games helped boost year-on-year hotel occupancy in Glasgow in sharp contrast to the experience of London during the 2012 Olympics.
Average occupancy across the nine nights of the games in Scotland last month reached 97.3%, more than 11% up on a year ago according to a survey of Glasgow city centre hotels.
Revenue per available room rose by 65.5% compared with July 2013, increasing from £50.13 to £82.99.
Occupancy for the month averaged 88.5% – the highest July rate in the city on record and a year-on-year increase of 6.5%.
July was the 14th consecutive month of occupancy growth for Glasgow’s hotels, according to tourism market research specialist LJ Research.
The research firm analysed data from 25 hotels, representing almost 4,000 rooms in Glasgow city centre.
Denis MacCann, general manager of Hotel Indigo and co-chair of the Greater Glasgow Hotels Association GGHA), said: “Glasgow managed to avoid the Olympics factor.
“London hotels ran at 50% occupancy for the 10 days leading up to the opening ceremony and for the five days following the closing ceremony.
“To support the city’s bid for the Commonwealth Games, the GGHA provided 60% of Glasgow’s hotel rooms, equivalent to 140,000 room nights, at discounted rates and those rooms and rates were honoured.
“We worked closely with Glasgow City Marketing Bureau and Glasgow 2014 for two years to ensure the city’s pricing strategy either side of the games was cognisant of London’s occupancy cliff edge.
“Unlike London, Glasgow’s hotels successfully managed their large tour and group commitments to ensure business en-route to the rest of Scotland, during and post games, continued unabated.”
LJ Research managing director Sean Morgan said: “The scale of growth recorded by Glasgow hotels in July was unprecedented.
“Our forward-bookings analysis shows signs of continued growth in the city as business-on-the-books for September, October and November is well above recent years.”