Hotel group hopeful of tourism upturn

Signs of a pick-up in London tourism

Upmarket hotel group Millennium and Copthorne says it sees signs of an upturn in the beleaguered tourism industry, despite a sharp fall in profits last year.

The UK-based company, which operates hotels in Europe, the US, Asia and Australia, saw profits fall to £54.2m ($76.55m) in 2001, from £129m the previous year.

It had warned in November that profits for the second half of 2001 would be severely affected by the terror attacks in the US on 11 September.

However, the group said it had seen a signs of a pick up in tourism in New York and London.

'Encouraging signs'

Chairman Kwek Leng Beng said: "While we are encouraged by signs of improvement in our markets in recent months, it is still difficult to predict the pace of recovery.

"There are some positive indicators in the US economy.

"We are seeing significant volume improvement in New York and some improvement in London, although our rates in both markets remain under pressure."