WIN Travel Network reported a record year in 2016 with members’ hotel bookings up 6.7%.  

The number of room nights booked by the network of nearly 6,000 travel agencies in 70 countries around the world was up by 5.2% at over 3.2 million, which was nearly 200,000 more room nights than in 2015.

Although total bookings and room nights both increased, the average number of room nights per booking fell from 1.89 in 2015 to 1.87 in 2016 showing that there were more trips but the average length of stay was slightly shorter.

The top five cities booked worldwide by WIN travel agency members were: London up 7%, Birmingham up 17%, Manchester up 10%, Aberdeen down 2% and New York was unchanged.  All figures compare room nights booked in 2016 v. 2015.

For the WIN top 30 UK cities, there was an increase of 9.5% in room nights booked in 2016 compared to 2015.  Overall 18 of the top 30 UK destinations saw an improvement versus 2015.

For the WIN top 30 cities worldwide excluding the UK there was an increase of 5.4% in room nights for 2016 compared to 2015.  Shanghai was up 29% whilst Santa Clara, Hong Kong and Adelaide all showed increases of 20% or more.

Neil Armorgie, chief executive officer of the Worldwide Independent Travel Network (WIN), said: “Increased hotel conversion by our member travel management companies indicates that corporate clients are continuing to travel.  2015 and 2016 were record years for hotel occupancy and average daily rates for most areas.  This year hotels will face some uncertainty from Brexit and the new US administration whilst hotel building continues apace.  Our members operate in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market which is characterised by higher average spend and is less affected by geopolitical uncertainty; so we predict similar growth in 2017.”