The 2010 Tour de France yet again proves to be a trophy winning event for hoteliers lucky enough to host the various race stages, with all key indicators skyrocketing compared to the corresponding period last year.

The 2010 Tour de France fuelled a massive increase in hotel demand at all stages of the event in July, driving average prices upwards and overall hotel result.

Occupancy Rate (OR) during the world's biggest cycle race was bustling, up by over 20, 30 and 40 percentage points in many cities, allowing hoteliers to increase Average Daily Rate (ADR) anywhere from 10% to 90%. In turn, the hotel industry's main performance indicator Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) boomed, ranging from 20% growth to an amazing 276%, depending on the stage and city.

"Indeed, the Tour de France is a fantastic event for tourism and a great opportunity for the hotel industries across the various stages. In fact, when hotel supply in a particular stage city is not sufficient to cater for the 22 rider teams (over 4,000 personnel) and their supporters, the greater region up to a 100 km radius also benefits from booming activity," comments Director of Development, MKG Hospitality, Vanguelis Panayotis.

"Events and efforts like these are exactly what are required for activity momentum and to make sure the industry continues its recovery."

This year, stage one in and around Rotterdam, during July 2 and 3, recorded the greatest growth, fuelled by a major increase in both OR and ADR, almost 40 points and over 85%, respectively (increase of the RevPAR reaches +276% and +213% these two days).

Soon after, Cambrai/Valenciennes was also very impressive, OR completely full at 100% and ADR growing by over 46%. The day before the 8th stage in Toumus, all destinations in the departments of Jura and Saône-et-Loire (Dole, Mâcon, or even Chalon-sur-Saône) were positively impacted by the event.

In both, RevPAR increases by over 30%, thank in large to a 26% growth in ADR (+26%), as OR is already reasonably high in July.

Hotels in the early stages of the Tour de France clearly benefit a lot more, especially as these destinations are less touristic and do not usually receive great amounts of visitors in July.