Thanks to the recent International Festival for Business (IFB), Liverpool hotels have boasted a 20 per cent increase in second quarter bookings compared to the same period last year.

The city’s waterfront venues reported the best number of bookings out of the 420,000 nights were booked during April, May and June.

The figures, which were compiled by Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) are a drastic increase on the 350,000 bookings that were made during the same time in 2013.

The average room occupancy rate also climbed from 75% in the second quarter of 2013 to 78% this year.

Room occupancy for the six hotels in Liverpool’s Waterfront Association area, between Kings Dock and Princes Dock, was 82% and the average price of a room was £75.47, some 11% higher than other parts of the region.

LEP’s head of visitor economy development, Pam Wilsher, said:

“If you start upping occupancy in mid-week it starts to look quite positive for the future.

“We don’t have a strong corporate market in Liverpool because we have a smaller business base here than other regional capitals, so if we manage to fill rooms in a different way it’s all good business for the city.”

Sue Grindrod (pictured), director and chair of Liverpool Waterfront Business Partnership recognises that the city’s waterfront is continuing to build its growing profile.

She said:

“The success of the hotels at Liverpool Waterfront is a reflection of the wider global trend as many of the world’s major cities like Copenhagen, Shanghai and New York have recognised the value of being by the water.”

Source and image credit: Liverpool Echo