It’s not vacationers, but business travellers that are driving up hotel rooms demand to a 5-year high

Driven by an increase in travel related to work, hotel rooms saw a 20% hike in demand in October, touching the highest point in past five years. This has come to light from the data compiled by hospitality data aggregator STR Global.

As per the report, hotels reported a double-digit growth in both occupancy and RevPAR (revenue per available room) in October. The occupancy increased by 15% from the year-ago month to 62.8%, and RevPAR saw a growth of 13.6%, reaching Rs 3,683.

"Business travel has started performing better, which reflects in the better occupancies across all business destinations," Vijay Thacker, director at Horwath HTL – India, told ET.

This has come as a relief to the hotel industry because of the lean phase that India's hospitality industry has been in for the past few years. It was because of the economic slowdown that had hit both business and leisure travel in the country.

However, as per some leading hoteliers, PM Modi's much touted e-tourist visa has not succeeded in triggering an expected growth in tourist arrivals. October, which is considered to be the beginning of the peak season for the hotel industry, failed to see any rise in foreign tourist arrivals. These arrivals have grown only 1.7% as compared to last year.

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