Hotel rates rise globally, but Thai island prices tumble

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This was published 12 years ago

Hotel rates rise globally, but Thai island prices tumble

By ROBERT UPE

HOTEL prices around the world rose by 4 per cent overall in 2011 compared with 2010, however a Hotels.com survey has found many overseas cities where costs have tumbled.

The biggest drops were in New Delhi where hotel prices fell by 27 per cent, Hiroshima and Shanghai down 24 per cent, and Kyoto down 19 per cent.

The key Thai holiday destinations of Koh Samui and Phuket fell 15 per cent and 8 per cent.

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European cities with falls included Berlin (-12 per cent), Madrid (-9 per cent) and Rome and Paris (-4 per cent).

Some of the factors attributed to the price drops include natural disasters such as the Japanese earthquake and flooding in Thailand, as well as uprisings in the Middle East and the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis.

In the US the biggest fall of 6 percent was in Boston and Washington DC but prices went up 10 per cent in San Francisco, up 8 per cent in Anaheim (home to Disneyland) and up 5 per cent in Los Angeles.

The biggest rise was in Christchurch, devastated by a series of earthquakes, where prices went up 22 per cent.

Katherine Birch, Hotels.com director of marketing in Australia and New Zealand said: "In Christchurch, a chronic lack of supply meant that the limited accommodation available was more expensive. In cities affected by the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, such as Tokyo, prices decreased as demand from both inbound and domestic travel fell for a significant period of time."

In Australia, the stable economy is blamed for an overall hotel price rise of 9 per cent.

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Brisbane went up 18 per cent and Perth went up 17 per cent to topple Sydney as the most expensive capital city for a hotel room.

Prices in Melbourne increased by 9 per cent.

The Hotels.com Hotel Price Index surveyed 51 countries.

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