As Italy’s capital and home to the headquarters of the Vatican state, Rome is considered one of the most important tourism destinations worldwide, and with 5.5 million international arrivals in 2010, it ranked third in the list of the worlds most visited cities (source: Euromonitor). Because of its strategic position in Europe and in the Mediterranean and its amazing cultural heritage, Rome attracts visitors all year long and has a good mix of leisure and business market segments, which mitigates the effects of seasonality.

According to the latest Hotel Price Index report, which analyzes international trends in hotel pricing, Rome remains clearly at the top of the most visited cities in Italy, followed by Venice and Milan. The main feeder market for the Italian capital is domestic business, followed by the USA, the UK, France, Spain and Austria.

Rome’s hotel market is composed of 934 hotels, of which 27.5% are in the Upscale and Upper-Scale segment, 36% in the Midscale segment, and 36.5% in the Budget segment. “The preeminence of the Upscale and Upper-Upscale segments in Rome explains the high ADR performance reached by the city”, said Céline Vadam, Hospitality Consulting Project Manager for Horwath HTL Italy SpA. “However, there is a gap in the Budget segment in terms of supply as well as quality, as the majority of the hotels in this segment are small and independently run and below the international standards”.


Source: STR Global

Like other tourism destinations, Rome’s hotel market was strongly impacted by the 2008 global economic crisis, which lead to a 2,1% decrease of tourist arrivals. In terms of hotel operating performance, occupancy experienced a 3.6% drop to 62.0% in 2009 compared to 2008, according to STR Global, whereas ADR declined 11.8% to €139.72, and RevPAR 15% to €86.65.

Despite the economic crisis and the difficult condition of the Italian economy, Rome remains an attractive city both for domestic and international travelers and the recovery started in 2010, with a 7.6% increase in occupancy, reaching 67%. ADR also started to pick up, albeit more slowly, with a 2% increase, reaching €142.51. The combination led to an increased RevPAR of €95.06, a 9.7% lift compared to the year before.

These positive trends have continued this year and the introduction in January of an occupancy tax did not affect Rome’s hotel industry. 2011 has so far been a good year for Rome, with many events creating tourism demand and driving rates up. The 150th Birthday of the Italian Republic in March and Pope Jean Paul II Beatification in May, attracted respectively 300,000 and 1 million visitors, and in November, Rome plays host to its International Film Festival.

In September year to date, Rome registered 68.4% occupancy, a 1.4% increase compared to 2010. ADR and RevPAR experienced higher growth with respectively 6.2% and 7.8%, reaching €149.6 for ADR and €102.3 for RevPAR.

“The current weakening economic environment will lead to more muted growth in 2012”, commented Elizabeth Randall, Managing Director from STR Global, "our November Hotel Market Forecast report for Rome predicts a 1.4% increase in RevPAR for 2012 resulting from a slight decline in occupancy and a 2.5% ADR growth.”

About STR Global

STR Global provides clients-including hotel operators, developers, financiers, analysts and suppliers to the hotel industry-access to hotel research with regular and custom reports covering Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia/Pacific and South America. STR Global provides a single source of global hotel data covering daily and monthly performance data, segmentation data, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information. Hotel operators can join the surveys on a complimentary basis and benefit from free industry data. STR Global is part of the STR family of companies and is proudly associated with STR, RRC Associates, STR Analytics and HotelNewsNow.com. For more information, please visit .

About Horwath HTL

Horwath HTL (Hotels Tourism and Leisure) is one of the pre-eminent consulting specialists in the hotel, tourism and leisure industries, providing unequalled experience and expertise for client projects around the world through a combination of detailed local knowledge and international understanding. Horwath HTL is currently the world's largest consulting organization specialized in the hospitality industry, with 50 offices in 39 countries.

Horwath HTL is a member of Crowe Horwath International, a professional association of accounting and management consulting firms founded in New York in 1915. Crowe Horwath International is currently ranked among the top ten international professional service groups with offices in close to 400 cities in 88 countries.

For more information, contact Celine Vadam on [email protected] or James Chappell, Global Marketing Director of Horwath HTL at [email protected].

Konstanze Auernheimer (STR Global)
Director of Marketing
+44 (0)207 922 1961
STR Global