Milan likes change. This year the national chamber of Italian fashion decided to change the format of “Milano Moda” which animates the city at the end of September. Contrary to the previous editions, fashion week invested the city center and its historic buildings, gravitating around Palazzo Giureconsulti, the headquarters of the chamber of commerce. It was a total success according to Mayor Letizia Moratti - “fashion week celebrated the creativity of Milan under the spotlights of the entire world” – and also for Milan’s hotel industry which saw its occupancy rate surpass 80% (+ 6.5 pts) and its RevPAR rise by 8.7%, to 138.1 euros.This September was part of a strong movement for the economic and financial capital of the country. Milan was the first Italian city to see its hotel occupancy move forward again. Businessmen and congress growers have found their way back to the city. And, for hoteliers, it is a return to “business as usual”, or better still… “In the last three months we beat occupancy records with double digit growth in our OR,” rejoices Francesco Brunetti, general manager of Starwood Hotels Milan, who expects this growth to impact the rate strategy: “a growing demand for our suites is a good omen for the future.” While the city’s average daily rate is under pressure from a 3.1% drop across twelve months, the last quarter marks a return to positive growth for the rates. Fashion Industry and businessmen: the hotel industry in the Lombard capital has these two solid pillars to rely on. But today, Milan’s cultural dimension is also beginning to gain recognition and promotes the development of leisure tourism. Its image as a grey and polluted industrial city that still lingered just a few years ago is beginning to fade thanks to Milan’s charm that the...