Swedish hotels cash in on business travellers

Business travellers have been flocking to city hotels in Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm this summer.

Revenue per available room rose by 13% in Malmö, 6% in Gothenburg and 4% in Stockholm on the same period last year, according to preliminary figures put together by tourism industry organization Visita. Malmö hotels also saw their occupancy rate increase to around 80%, bringing the growing southern Swedish city to the same level as Stockholm and Gothenburg. The increase in Sweden's three biggest cities is largely thanks to a rising number of businesspeople travelling to and within the country, which has enjoyed a business boom in the past few years on the back of growing global companies and successful startups. “It means that you can charge slightly higher prices per hotel room and that's important for profitability,” Visita CEO Eva Östling says. Another reason could be that the availability in other areas of Sweden has decreased because of some hotels being turned into asylum accommodation.

Source: The Local Sweden 1 September 2016