The performance of Bristol's hotels is lagging behind others in the region, according to research released today.

Data from accountants Deloitte showed hotel occupancy figures in Bristol were behind Bath in the first six months of 2009.

Despite the economic conditions, Bath, a World Heritage site, continues to be a major attraction and hotels in the city showed only a 5.7 per cent fall in revenue per available room (revPAR) in the first half of the year.

While still negative, it compares favourably with the national average of an 11.1 per cent fall in revPAR. The result was reflected in good occupancy rates for Bath's hotels.

Despite having the highest average room rate (£83) outside London, the city was one of the least affected markets in the country, achieving 70.9 per cent occupancy throughout the first half of 2009, second only to Glasgow.

But Bristol experienced a 12.3 per cent decline in revPAR, 1.2 per cent below the national average while Swindon hotels' 20.5 per cent decline made it one of the worst among the 18 destinations surveyed.

Experts believe the impact of the Banksy exhibition in Bristol, which opened on June 14 and runs until August 31 will improve hotel occupancy rates in the city over this period.

More than 285,000 people have visited the graffiti artist's display at the Bristol Museum.

Denis Woulfe, Practice Senior Partner at Deloitte in Bristol, said: "The South West hotel industry's performance has a strong correlation to UK gross domestic product performance and should start improving as the recession subsides.

"However, the region's performance could be buoyed by strong domestic demand for tourism this summer as more Brits take short breaks in the UK.

"The strong Euro against Sterling has also made the UK less expensive than in the past. Overall, hotels in the UK and the South West held up exceptionally well in the global economic downturn with revPAR down by only 12.9 per cent, in contrast to other countries across Europe which are seeing a revPAR drop by up to 40 per cent."