Cheaper wages made Russia the most profitable region for luxury hotel operator Rocco Forte Hotels (RFH) in the year to 30 April 2004.
Its Astoria and Angleterre hotels in St Petersburg achieved pre-tax profits of £4.3m on a turnover of £18.5m.
This was almost three times more than the £1.55m profit generated by the group's four UK hotels on sales of £21.5m.
Group turnover fell by 2.8% to £66.2m, owing to the sale of the Hotel Amigo in Brussels into a joint venture company set up by RFH with the Bank of Scotland.
Total sales across the 10 hotels managed by the group grew by 12.4% to £87.8m (from £78.1m). Pre-tax profits soared by 19% from £8.4m to £10m.
Occupancy grew by six percentage points, average room rate by 1% and food and beverage sales by 10%.
The figures do not cover the company's 11th hotel, Le Richemond in Geneva, which it bought in July 2004.
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