§ Lord Fearnasked Her Majesty's Government:
What monitoring of visitor bed occupancy has been undertaken in London over the six months since July 2001. [HL2630]
§ The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Blackstone)Official monitoring of visitor bed occupancy in London has been undertaken since January 1997 by the London Tourist Board (LTB) and Convention Bureau as part of the United Kingdom Occupancy Survey (UKOS). This is carried out by all regional tourist boards, and co-ordinated by the English Tourism Council under the EU directive on tourism statistics, which the UK adopted in 1995.
The London Tourist Board bases its survey on approximately 80 establishments in Greater London, and issues results including: bed occupancy, room occupancy, the proportion of bednights accounted for by overseas customers and the average length of stay. These results are categories by type, size and/or grading of establishments, sub-region and price band.
The LTB has issued confirmed results for July and August 2001, and provisional results for September, October and November 2001. September's final results and December's provisional results are expected shortly.