Chinese tourists abroad led to increased hotel prices around globe According to a study conducted by Hotels.com, a rapid increase in Chinese tourists abroad has led to increased hotel prices around the globe in recent years .
In a preface to Hotels.com\'s Hotel Price Index (HPI), the company\'s President David Roche described \"the huge and rapid rise in the number of Chinese international travelers\" as a \"phenomenon that is impacting global hotel prices.\" Accounting for over 83 million trips abroad and $102 billion in travel expenditures in 2012, the Chinese are the most represented nationality among the world\'s travelers.
Roche pointed out, however, that the phenomenon was not the only reason behind the hike in hotel prices in the first half of 2013 from the same period last year. In Europe, for example, hotel prices are still rising slowly from the lows seen in 2008 and 2009, in the throes of the economic crisis. The study revealed a 1 percent increase in hotel prices this year, leading Roche to state that \"The fact that the Eurozone recorded growth for the first two quarters of 2013 is evidence that the economic crisis is easing, although not yet completely over.\"
Regions with the highest increase in hotel prices included Latin America (+7%), followed by the Caribbean (+5%) and North America (+3%). Asia is the only region in the index to show a decrease in hotel prices from 2012 to 2013 (-2%).
In terms of the global average, Hotels.com indicates that the price of a hotel room increased by 2 percent from the first half of 2012 to the same period in 2013.
Source: Relaxnews