HOTELS in Scotland's biggest city had their best November for seven years as sell-out concerts at the Hydro and sporting events enticed visitors to book rooms.

The hospitality sector said there were 12 separate nights when hotel occupancy reached 90% or above, with 98% of all rooms booked on Saturday, November 23. The monthly average was 83%, the highest total for November since 2006.

Experts said they expected next November to be even better as Glasgow will be hosting one of the world's largest medical conferences, an international summit on drug therapy in HIV which it hosts every two years.

The upsurge is thought to be due to the launch of Glasgow's festival campaign, concerts performed by the Arctic Monkeys and Simple Minds and track cycling events at the Emirates Arena.

On November 23, Jools Holland was playing at the SECC, Andrea Bocelli at the SSE Hydro, while Celtic played against Aberdeen and the Scottish International Badminton Championships were on at the Emirates Arena.

The increase in occupancy came against a drop in average room rates as fewer business visitors booked rooms but Sean Morgan, Research Director at LJ Research, which carried out the study, said Glasgow was "extremely good at flexibly targeting leisure visitors when a reduction in business visitors is anticipated".

Scott Taylor, Chief Executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said: "What has been a welcome outcome is the increase in demand for accommodation during November."