The scale of growth and development activity in the South East hotel sector is clearly indicative of a strong market, which has held up even in the challenging market conditions of 2001—2006. Further growth in the South East economy will continue to drive hotel investment, with a particular focus on priority investment areas identified in the South East Plan that include: Thames Gateway, Test Valley, Coastal strip and Isle of Wight, South Downs and New Forest proposed National Parks, Milton Keynes and Ashford Growth Areas, Oxford and Western Oxfordshire.
Research commissioned by TSE 2001—2008 has identified a wide range of opportunity for additional hotel investment across the region. The following tables give an overview of where these opportunities are geographically, and help summarise the potential by product type. These opportunities assume continued economic growth in each location. Some opportunities are more immediate than others. The opportunities for some types of hotel may be stronger than for others in some locations.
Where opportunities for a range of hotel products are identified this does not necessarily mean that there are opportunities for all of these hotel products to be developed in that location. For example, there may be potential for an upper-tier budget or a 3 star hotel, but not both.
Hotel Development Opportunities
More detailed information is available on each of the locations by clicking the area of interest on the interactive maps.
Hotel Investment Success
The success of the South East as a business and leisure investment location has prompted strong interest from the hotel sector in new development across the Region. The past 10 years has seen an unprecedented level of new investment in a wide range of hotel products from budget to 5 star luxury hotels, including new leading-edge products such as boutique hotels. All the main UK brands are represented here, and new entrants to the UK are targeting the South East to be part of their first phase investments, bringing them profile and exposure in key markets.
This document gives a flavour of the scale of hotel investment that has taken place:
New Hotel Openings in the South East