Hotels in New York saw a strong demand in occupancy and rates due to solar eclipse
The global travel and tourism industry is set to move from ‘revenge travel’ seen in the post-pandemic period to ‘selective travel’ in 2024, says a report by STR, a global hospitality industry tracking and analyst firm.
In its analysis of the performance of the industry in the week ending April 13, STR says that similar to the previous week, the hotel performance in the United States reflected an easy comparison to Easter last year and the impact of the solar eclipse. It adds that Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) rose 5.8 pc, driven by nearly equal gains in occupancy and average daily rate (ADR).
However, the growth was not equally distributed across all days of the week. It adds that RevPAR gains came primarily from Sunday and Monday, which were up 42.3 pc and 23 pc respectively. Thereafter, growth tapered to 8.3 pc on Tuesday and 2 pc on Wednesday. It says that more concerning was RevPAR decreased from Thursday through Saturday.
The impact of the solar eclipse cannot be understated. Despite only 17 pc of US submarkets, 120 of 687 US submarkets, being in the path, those submarkets accounted for 59 pc of the total US demand growth. Most of the increase came on Sunday and Monday, it says.
According to STR, occupancy on Sunday and Monday surpassed 80 pc in the Luxury/Upper Upscale and Upscale/Upper Midscale classes and was near 70 pc in the Midscale/Economy classes. In the remaining submarkets, occupancy hit 61 pc in Luxury/Upper Upscale, 58 pc Upscale/Upper Midscale and 50 pc in Midscale/Economy.
STR adds that the eclipse submarket two-day ADR was USD 295 in Luxury/Upper Upscale, USD 195 in Upscale/Upper Midscale and USD 115 in Midscale/Economy. The rate was even higher on Sunday, the day before the eclipse.
It says that while it is true that year-over-year comparisons were easy due to Easter 2023, the growth in non-eclipse areas was not that impressive as weekly RevPAR was up by only 1.8 pc with Sunday and Monday growing in the low teens. In the eclipse markets, weekly RevPAR increased by 35.9 pc. All areas of the country saw RevPAR decrease Thursday through Saturday.
STR says that group demand continued to be strong, reaching the second highest demand level of the year so far. Including the most recent week, group demand has surpassed 2 million room nights four times this year. San Diego, Philadelphia, and Nashville saw the greatest group occupancy gains. Group ADR increased a healthy 9.1 pc with Philadelphia and Phoenix seeing the largest ADR gains of over 20 pc.
Global performance continued to grow
Besides the United States, global occupancy also reached the highest level of the year, of 68.4 pc. STR says that key country occupancy ranged from 76.4 pc in the U.K. to 59.3 pc in Indonesia. Spain, Italy and China all saw occupancy above 72 pc, with only China showing a year-over-year decrease.
It adds that Canada benefited from the eclipse with RevPAR rising by 16.9 pc, as the eclipse was visible in two of Canada’s largest cities. Montreal’s RevPAR was up 34.4 pc, while Toronto saw a 27.6 pc gain. Mexico, also in the path of the eclipse, did not see a notable increase country-wide. However, the northern Mexican markets posted notable RevPAR gains that were offset by RevPAR declines in other parts of the country.
