Hotels recovery 'on hold until 2003'

BRITISH hoteliers will have to wait until next year for a recovery in demand, according to top industry pundits. London is on course for its worse year in nearly a decade, PricewaterhouseCoopers' Hospitality and Leisure Group added.

The industry has been knocked sideways over the past eighteen months as travellers stayed away, deterred by foot and mouth disease, the terror attacks of 11 September and a slowdown in the global economy. An improvement in the seasonally stronger summer months would not compensate for occupancy declines earlier this year.

'As a consequence, 2002 (revenue per available room) is expected to fall further, before recovery is seen in 2003,' PwC's report said. The group said recovery would be particularly slow in London with further declines in RevPAR this year, falling to its lowest level since 1992/93.