Taking another break from the SMD’s, I decided to take a look at some great sites for industry statistics and research.

Finding the right information at the right time - ie when you need it, is always a challenge. Here are some websites/companies which provide a rich source of authentic information - both statistics and research..

• The Hotel & Travel Index - an extensive compilation of hotels and travel organisations around the world
• The Bench - Benchmarks average rates, occupancies and more across various cities around the world. The Bench is a web-based management tool providing online daily benchmarking data for the hotel industry.
• HVS - Hospitality industry news, reports and analysis from leading Hospitality Advisory company
• TRI Hospitality Consulting - Hotel industry surveys and hotel statistics for a leading hotel consultancy
• Deloitte & Smith Travel research - A leading global management consultancy with a specialised interest in Hospitality. One of their latest reports is Hospitality 2010: An in-depth report into driving shareholder value in the hospitality sector
• Hotel Benchmark - from Deloitte
• STAR - detailed statistics on UK tourism and hotels. The group is made up of representatives of the national tourist boards for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Britain
• Visit London - extremely detailed statistics on the capital city
• Tourism Futures International - Asia Pacific statistics
• Centre for Hospitality Research - quality research on and for the hospitality industry from Cornell

Many will also find the hospitality section of the Intute website an excellent source of hospitality industry resources in general.

If you know more unique and exceptional resources for statistics and research on the industry, please post it.