Across all regions of the globe, revenue per available room is up through the first three quarters of 2010. In some cases, way up. Asia/Pacific hotels marked a RevPAR increase of nearly 23 percent over the period. Figures for the other regions: RevPAR in the Americas is up 5.3 percent; in Europe, it’s up 3.8 percent; and in the Middle East/Africa, it’s up 3.9 percent. These figures come from the latest STR Global Hotel Outlook.

Konstanze Auernheimer, director of marketing and analysis for STR Global, calls it a classical recovery. “With the demand being there, beds being filled, you get a little bit of pricing power back to the hoteliers globally to certainly push the revenue per available room,” she said in a press release. “Initially, when we see occupancies improving, it’s kind of the classical recovery. You first see occupancies improving before any of the rate growth comes back.”

Worldwide average daily rate is still down in absolute terms, she said. But there are high-performing spots like Asia/Pacific, where ADR increased 10.5 percent through September 2010. And STR Global has revised its forecast for London’s 2010 RevPAR, now expecting an 11.4 percent increase for the year. Also performing well are up-and-coming economies such as Istanbul, Auernheimer said. “It’s a stable economy and coming back quite strongly.”

As for the fourth quarter, Auernheimer expected positive growth figures. “It’s a high-risk environment to be in; however, in the moment we feel the recovery should continue for 2011 and that … if no major event happens, we should see more prolonged growth late in 2011, 2012.”

Global Air Capacity Increases, Too
Global airline capacity was up 6 percent in December, with 311.7 million scheduled seats available worldwide, according to the monthly OAG Frequency and Capacity Trend Statistics (FACTS ) report.

Over the past 10 years the number of available seats, worldwide, has increased 40 percent, growing most years, while the number of flights has increased 24 percent during that same period, according to OAG.

“Passenger confidence is growing, along with the economy,” said Peter von Moltke, CEO, UBM Aviation, in the report. “Many [regions] are growing at a striking rate. Africa, Asia/Pacific, and the Middle East all continue to show a large appetite for air travel.” Double-digit increases were marked in capacity to and from Africa (11 percent), Asia (12 percent), and the Middle East (13 percent). In fact, all of these regions have seen growth in the number of scheduled seats for 10 consecutive years: a 130 percent increase in capacity in travel to and from Africa; 176 percent increase in capacity in travel to and from the Middle East; and an 88 percent increase in capacity in travel to and from Asia/Pacific.