Oasis reunion boosts hotel sector in bumper July
The UK hotel sector benefitted from a bumper July, boosted by the Oasis reunion, with occupancy, room rates and profits all exceeding the previous year for the first time in eight months, according to the RSM Hotels Tracker.
The data, which is compiled and produced by Hotstats and analysed by RSM UK, shows occupancy of London hotels hit a six-year high of 89.9% in July, up from 89.2% the previous year, and increased from 85% to 86.2% in the UK.
Average daily rates (ADR) of occupied rooms in London jumped from £263.85 to £271.52 in July year-on-year, and rose from £180.36 to £184.34 in the UK.
Gross operating profits also ticked up slightly from 49.4% in July 2024 to 49.6% in July 2025 in London and from 44.2% to 44.5% in the UK.
“The UK experienced its hottest summer on record this year, which is likely to have helped draw in not only international tourists, but encourage domestic travellers to stay in the UK. As a result, forecasts of a strong year for UK tourism in 2025 appear to be bearing fruit, particularly with a record 81m passengers passing through UK airports in Q2 2025.
“While this bodes well for the UK government’s goal of increasing international visitor numbers to 50 million by 2030, there’s a real concern whether this is feasible if hotels are already at capacity. Tourism is key for the UK economy, but it’s clear a commitment to building more hotels is necessary in order to house more tourists. But it’s not as simple as just building, hoteliers need to ensure the offering is tailored, the branding is suitable and it’s the right location to appeal to their desired market.”
Thomas Pugh, economist at RSM UK, said: “The improvement in the hotel sector in July chimes with other data, such as the jump in the PMI in August and rising consumer confidence, which suggests the UK services sector is leading the economic recovery.
“Admittedly, there are some gathering headwinds. Rising inflation combined with a looser labour market will mean weaker real pay growth. It now looks unlikely that there will be another interest rate cut this year and speculation about rising taxes in the Autumn Budget will dent confidence.
“However, household incomes have risen sharply since the pandemic and savings levels are high. That gives consumers ample opportunity to save a bit less and spend a bit more. The key variable is going to be how consumer confidence holds up in the run up to the budget.”