Accor's Q1 sales rise 8% as Middle-East, Africa and Asia Pacific demand picks up

(Reuters) -Europe's biggest hotel group Accor reported an 8% rise in first quarter revenue on Thursday, with the Middle-East, Africa and Asia pacific regions recording high growth.

The operator of brands including Ibis and Novotel said revenue in the first three months of the year rose to 1.24 billion euros ($1.33 billion) from 1.14 billion euros in the same period of 2023.

Global tourism is set to fully recover from the pandemic in 2024 as international tourist arrivals will likely be 2% more numerous than in 2019, the United Nations' World Tourism Organisation said in January.

Accor's revenue per available room (RevPAR), one of the industry's main performance gauges, rose 7.6% to 66 euros in the quarter.

The increase was more pronounced in midscale, upscale and economy hotels in the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, where it grew by 12% on the back of bookings in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan and the recovery of tourism in Singapore and Thailand.

Sales in France, which account for 44% of the group's room revenue in the Europe and North Africa region, benefited from a growing number of events, Accor added.

Europe's largest hotel group expects major international sporting events this year, such as the Paris Olympics and the Euro 2024 soccer tournament, to boost its revenues and RevPAR.

Accor, which opened 53 hotels in the period, also confirmed its mid-term forecast, notably a yearly RevPAR growth of 3-4% as well as a global shareholder return of 3 billion euros between 2023-2027.

($1 = 0.9337 euros)

(Reporting by Tristan Veyet and Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Sharon Singleton)