Spatial-temporal patterns in the English hotel and tourist industries: a time series analysis of competitive occupancy performance at the individual hotel level

This study demonstrates the use of hotel occupancy data in identifying spatial and temporal patterns in the performance of the hotel and tourist industries. It develops a standardisation procedure, analogous to shift-share analysis, which enables hotel occupancy data to be analysed at the individual hotel level without the distortions introduced by regional and local variations in hotel type. The procedure identifies competitive components of occupancy performance for individual hotels, measuring how their occupancy profiles compare with 'expected' occupancy profiles (the structural components) derived from similar hotels nationally. Individually, the competitive components serve to highlight the strengths and weaknesses in individual hotel occupancy performance. Collectively, they enable the identification of disaggregated spatial and temporal patterns in the performance of the hotel and tourist industries. Such patterns are obtained from an analysis of the occupancy performance of 266 hotels in England. These patterns provide valuable insights into the performance of the hotel industry and prompt the search for appropriate policy responses.