Annual hotel occupancy data for the 2015 calendar year shows that Greater Manchester hotels have once again achieved the highest level of occupancy since records began.
Both Manchester city centre and Greater Manchester as a whole achieved average annual occupancy rates of 80% in 2015. This represents a third year of growth for the hotel industry where the annual rates were 77% in the city centre and 76% at a Greater Manchester level in 2013, increasing to 79% and 77% respectively in 2014.
A 2013 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report suggested that Manchester had strongest hotel pipeline in Europe and the city has been making good on this claim.
Bed stock across Greater Manchester has soared with new openings such as Hotel Gotham, Hotel Football, Innside Manchester and Motel One Piccadilly accounting for 750 new rooms in 2015 alone.
2016 will see this trend continue with new openings at all price points and King Street Townhouse is one of the most anticipated. Opened in December 2015, the fifth venue in Eclectic Hotels’ portfolio will utilise a former bank and Grade II listed building with 40 bedrooms and a south facing rooftop infinity spa pool overlooking Albert Square and Manchester Town Hall.
Also at the higher end will be Oddfellows On The Park, sister to the award-winning Oddfellows in Chester. The design-led hotel will offer 22 boutique bedrooms in the heart of Bruntwood Park near Manchester Airport and is due to open in summer 2016.
Roomzzz is set to open its second Manchester property later in 2016, converting the upper floors of the refurbished Corn Exchange into serviced apartments. easyHotel will open a new 114 bedroom hotel in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, whilst a new Holiday Inn (296 rooms) will open at Piccadilly and a new Crowne Plaza (210 rooms) at the University of Manchester.
Looking ahead to 2017, the city is set to welcome another Motel One, an Indigo Hotel and Manchester Grande Hotel which will rework the iconic Granada Studios building.
Nick Brooks-Sykes, director of tourism at Marketing Manchester, said: “These occupancy figures are a real testament to the strength of Greater Manchester’s hotel and tourism industries as occupancy rates continue to grow, even in the face of so many new hotels joining the market.
“We’ve been saying for some time that 2015 was a standout year for tourism – we had the re-opening of the Whitworth, the opening of HOME and some fantastic events like the Manchester International Festival, Manchester Pride’s 25th anniversary and a huge rugby weekend in October – so it’s great to see our expectations confirmed with some hard data.
“Of course, it’s not just cultural events and leisure tourism which drive occupancy rates. Business tourism – that is, meetings and conferences – drive a constant flow of business visitors to the city and we had some very significant conferences in 2015 including the Conservative Party Annual Conference.
“What’s also interesting about the 2015 data is that within the city centre the average annual occupancy rate at the weekend was 86% versus 77% during the week. This is an important piece of intelligence and proves that there is still a lot of potential for growth to meet demand during busy weekends.
“Going forward we need to further invest in tourism, working together with our partners to continue to position Greater Manchester as a destination that people want to visit for both business and pleasure. Of course, we are now competing on the international stage for our slice of the market so we also need to encourage innovation and activity which will align with and cater to our key international markets.”
