Investors have hailed the "enduring appeal" of Scottish hotels, pushing sales up significantly in the last year.

Edinburgh led the way and is expected to remain the highest-performing hotel market outside of London in 2024.

Scotland saw hotel transaction volumes reach £310m in 2023, up 98% on 2022’s figure of £156m, according to Savills. Overall Scotland accounted for circa 14% of all UK hotel deals last year as the market remained resilient despite ongoing economic headwinds.

Savills recorded 31 transactions in 2023, most notably the sale of the Waldorf Astoria in Edinburgh for £85m to Henderson Park and Klarent Hospitality, reflecting 27% of overall volumes.

Other key deals saw the sale of Mar Hall by EY Parthenon to Dubai based Dutco, which was marketed at a guide price of £12m.

In terms of buyer profile, Savills notes that 77% of purchasers were UK investors, an increase on the 63% seen in 2022. It said that often these buyers appreciate the nuances of sub-markets and understand where they can add value and make a positive impact to existing hotels and their communities.

The additional 23% of capital came from locations including South Africa, UAE, Singapore and the Republic of Ireland.

Looking at the year ahead, Savills believes confidence will continue to return to the market with a number of sale processes already underway. What’s more, there are a number of highly anticipated openings and up to 678 rooms in development, including Red Carnation at 100 Princes Street and the Hoxton, both in Edinburgh. The city is, therefore, expected to remain the highest-performing hotel market outside of London in 2024, Savills said.

Steven Fyfe, hotel capital markets director at Savills Scotland, said: “While 2023 was challenging, we saw 72% of all transactions take place in the second half of the year, demonstrating the enduring appeal of Scottish hotels despite a difficult market.

“We are already seeing stability return with a strong start to 2024. Key events this year, including the Six Nations, Taylor Swift playing three dates at Murrayfield in June and the growing number of people attending the Fringe and summer festivals will no doubt see visitor numbers rise. With all this in mind, from an investment perspective, we should see transaction volumes exceed £200 million by the end of the year.”

Travel giant quits London in blow to UK's post-Brexit prestige

Shareholders in travel giant Tui have voted unanimously in favour of the company ditching its listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Tui, which is currently dual-listed in London and Frankfurt, announced last night that investors had voted by a large majority (98.35%) to quit the UK capital. The company's shares in London were down nearly 4%  at 555.5p at the time of writing this morning.

Record-breaking year for top Scottish attraction

A social history tour through the underworld of Edinburgh's Royal Mile has reported a record-breaking year after welcoming guests from 162 different countries in 2023.

Known colloquially as "the Close", Real Mary King's Close hosted more than 257,000 visitors last year to break its previous record in 2019 by more than 10,000. Since re-opening in May 2021 with the easing of Covid lockdown restrictions, the attraction has welcomed more than half a million guests.

Food prices fall for first time since 2021

Inflation unexpectedly held steady last month as food prices fell for the first time in almost two-and-a-half years, official figures show.

Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation remained unchanged at 4% in January, lower than the 4.2% that economists had forecast although still double the Bank of England’s 2% target, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The monthly drop in food prices, of 0.4%, was the first since September 2021, with the cost of bread and cereals, cream crackers and chocolate biscuits falling, the ONS said.