Hawaii’s hotels report 2.7 percentage point growth in average room occupancy in November.12/20/2019 According to the Hawai‘i Hotel Performance Report published by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA), statewide RevPAR increased by 8.1% to $204.80, with ADR up by 4.4% to 259.78 and occupancy of 78.8 percent up 2.7 percentage points from 76.1% in November 2018.
HTA’s Tourism Research Division issued the report’s findings utilizing data compiled by STR, Inc., which conducts the largest and most comprehensive survey of hotel properties in the Hawaiian Islands. In November 2019, Hawai‘i hotel room revenues statewide grew by 7.6 percent to $330.3 million, which is $23.2 million higher than last year. Room demand rose to 1.3 million room nights, up 3.1 percent compared to a year ago. Room supply was similar year-over-year (1.6 million room nights, -0.5%). Several hotel properties across the state were closed for renovation or had rooms out of service for renovation during November. Through the first eleven month of 2019 the hotels achieved an average room occupancy of 80.9%, up 0.2 percentage points from 2018. ADR in 2019 averaged $276.06 up 1.8% compared with the first 11 months of 2018 with revpar at $223.28, up 2.1% compared with 2018. All classes of Hawai‘i hotel properties statewide reported RevPAR gains in November. Luxury Class properties reported RevPAR growth to $371 (+3.9%), with increases in ADR at $509 (+3.9%) and flat occupancy. Midscale & Economy Class hotels reported RevPAR of $135 (+11.1%), with increases in both occupancy (81.6%, +5.2 percentage points) and ADR ($166, +4.0%) Among Hawai‘i’s four island counties, Maui County hotels led the state in RevPAR at $265 (+7.7%), with ADR of $354 (+5.8%) and occupancy of 74.9 percent (+1.3 percentage points) in November. Properties in Wailea, where there are a number of luxury resorts, earned RevPAR of $444 (+3.0%), with increases in ADR ($536, +7.5%) offsetting lower occupancy (82.8%, -3.6 percentage points). O‘ahu hotels reported RevPAR growth to $188 (+9.1%) in November, with increases in ADR to $229 (+5.4%) and occupancy of 82.0 percent (+2.8 percentage points). Waikīkī properties earned RevPAR of $188 (+11.4%), with increases in both ADR ($227, +6.5%) and occupancy (83.1%, +3.7 percentage points). Hotels on the island of Hawai‘i saw significant increases in RevPAR to $185 (+13.5%), ADR at $245 (+3.8%) and occupancy of 75.7 percent (+6.5 percentage points) in November compared to the same time a year ago. Properties on the Kohala Coast earned RevPAR of $271 (+16.3%), ADR at $349 (+2.5%), and occupancy of 77.8 percent (+9.3 percentage points). In May 2018, Kīlauea volcano started erupting in lower Puna, which contributed to a downturn in visitors to the island of Hawai‘i in the following months. Kaua‘i hotels reported lower RevPAR of $180 (-1.7%), ADR at $250 (-1.9%) and occupancy of 72.2 percent (+0.2 percentage points) in November. Properties report rooms as officially out of service to STR if they are unavailable for rent for 30 days or more. However, it should be noted that rooms out of service for renovation for less than 30 days are still included in the Supply numbers presented in Figures 2 and 4 and may be considered overstated. Tables of hotel performance statistics, including data presented in the report are available for viewing online at: https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/research/infrastructure-research/ About the Hawai‘i Hotel Performance Report The Hawai‘i Hotel Performance Report is produced using hotel survey data compiled by STR, Inc., the largest survey of its kind in Hawai‘i. The survey generally excludes properties with under 20 lodging units, such as small bed and breakfasts, youth hostels, single-family vacation rentals, cottages, individually rented vacation condominiums and sold timeshare units no longer available for hotel use. The data has been weighted both geographically and by class of property to compensate for any over and/or under representation of hotel survey participants by location and type. For November 2019, the survey included 168 properties representing 48,185 rooms, or 89.6 percent of all lodging properties with 20 rooms or more in the Hawaiian Islands, including full service, limited service, and condominium hotels.
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Abu Dhabi: Data analytics will be a key driver for Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry in the years to come as the emirate looks to compete globally as a top tourist destination, said Saif Saeed Ghobash, undersecretary of the Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).
Ghobash was speaking at the first-ever Tourism and Data Analytics Forum held in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, as the event brought together several leading industry players from the tourism and hospitality sector to discuss the latest trends within the sector and how important data information will be as the industry looks to expand. This year has already been a successful one for the DCT Abu Dhabi, which last month announced a 2.9 per cent overall increase in hotel guests staying in Abu Dhabi compared to 2018, with the emirate hosting several major events this year including the Asia Cup, Special Olympics, UFC 242 and the Formula 1 Grand Prix. “We at the DCT — Abu Dhabi believe that the subject of data analytics is a fundamental pillar of our modus operandi. Data is the fuel that drives the various operating models as a key ingredient to achieving our aspirations,” said Ghobash. “We strong believe that a tourism destination not adopting data and analytics as part of its work in this day and age is akin to a city running without electricity or fuel,” he added. “With the world crossing the 1 billion threshold of visitors and the $1 trillion market spend, competition is global and it’s real,” he said, pointing to the highly competitive nature of the tourism industry. Ghobash said that it was no longer an option to provide visitors with a personalised plan tailored to their tastes, but rather a must for cities looking to stay ahead of the competition. “Mass personalisation is no longer a theme of innovation when it has become a customer expectation. “Let’s imagine for a moment you land at Abu Dhabi International Airport; your Uber or Careem is waiting for you [and] you open your assistant … and check out your plan for the day … and every bit of your plan matches your budget, taste and lifestyle,” he added. “This isn’t science fiction, today it’s all about personalised journeys and data perfected by retailers,” he said. Ziad Mohammad, business intelligence director at the DCT Abu Dhabi, spoke on how the organisation was already using its data analysis to help support the local industry, highlighting how one such programme was implemented for the UFC 242 which took place in September. “We gathered the data from Ticketmaster, all our digital marketing and PR campaigns and we created buyer personas. We predicted who is coming to Abu Dhabi to [watch] the UFC [and] at what income level and which country and demographics [they’re from.]. “We created four buyer personas — high income buyer, low income and family buyer personas. We went back and tested [this] as a pilot to the nightlife operators, we told them 60 per cent of their audience will be from these two countries and this income level,” he added. “They changed their artists for the UFC event to accommodate the upcoming audience, this allowed them to significantly increase their bookings ... and offering,” he said, explaining how the data was able help. Speaking on some of Abu Dhabi’s tourism trends gleaned from their data studies, Mohammad said visitor spending was varied during summer and winter months, creating two different pictures for the emirate. “We realised the profile and the spending power and the demographics of the people arriving in the summer in Abu Dhabi is completely different than the profile arriving in winter. “So with this … we create a statement highlighting the story of Abu Dhabi through two narratives … [and] so every single forecast will differ depending on which solution you use [summer or winter],” he added. International tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) grew 4% in January-September 2019 compared to the same period last year, with mixed performance among world regions.
The UNWTO’s Tourism Barometer for November 2019 estimates that destinations worldwide received around 1.1 billion international tourist arrivals in the first nine months of 2019, about 43 million more than in the same nine months of 2018. This represents a continuation of the 6% growth recorded in 2018 though at a more moderate pace and in line with the annual average of 4% for the last ten years (2008 -2018). The Middle East (+9.3%) led growth, followed by Asia and the Pacific (5.4%) and Africa (4.6%). Europe (+3.4%) and the Americas (+2.4%) enjoyed more moderate increases. The Caribbean posted a 7.6% growth rate in the first nine months of 2019. While growth was up 15.0% in the first quarter and was up 8.2% in the second quarter growth fell by 1.3% in the third quarter of 2019 compared to third quarter 2018 as a result of issues in the Dominican Republic and the impact of Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas. According to IATA international air passenger traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) saw a similar pattern to international arrivals with a 4.3% increase through September 2019. However, the global economic slowdown, trade tensions and rising geopolitical challenges, social unrest, prolonged uncertainty about Brexit and lower business confidence have weighed on growth in international tourism. The collapse of major travel group Thomas Cook, and some small European airlines has disrupted some tourism flows, though other travel service providers have moved in to absorb the current demand and offset, at least partly, the decline in capacity. The failure of Thomas Cook on September 26 2019 left 600,000 travelers stranded around the world including 150,000 Britons. According to data provided by Mabrian Technologies 38 countries were affected , particularly in Europe and the Americas and more than 8.6 million flight seats would be cancelled from September 2019 until the end of August 2020 according to the inbound flight seats scheduled by Thomas Cook. By countries the UK, Spain, Turkey, Greece, the USA and Tunisia would be the most affected by the failure of the world’s oldest travel firm. As per the main source markets, the United States led growth in international tourism expenditure in absolute terms, supported by a strong dollar. France reported the strongest increase among the top ten markets, reflecting for the second consecutive year a surging demand while China, the world’s top source market saw outbound trips increased by 14% in the first half of 2019, though expenditure fell 4% compared to the same period last year. For more information go to https://webunwto.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2019-12/UNWTO_Barom19_04_November_excerpt_0.pdf
The United States Government’s Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) recently released the figures for U.S. citizens outbound travel from the USA to International Regions for the month of September 2019 as well as the first nine months of 2019.
While overall travel by US citizens to international regions was up 5.5% in September travel by US citizens to the Caribbean fell by 6.8% from 451,939 in September 2018 to 421,173 in September of this year, a decline of 30,766 visitors. This was largely due to a 33.0% drop in travel by residents of the USA to the Dominican Republic in September, which fell by 35,752 in September 2019 compared to September of the previous year as well as a 21.5% drop in stopovers to The Bahamas. With 80% of visitors to The Bahamas coming from the USA this would also have had a negative impact on the overall numbers. The NTTO does not include travel by US citizens to either Puerto Rico or the USVI in their total for the Caribbean as both are deemed to be domestic destinations for the purposes of their study. September 2019
Year to Date September 2019
The numbers for air traffic both to and from all international regions (on US and foreign flagged carriers) are reported to the NTTO by means of the “U.S. International Air Travel Statistics Report”.
As can be seen: -
The NTTO defines the Caribbean as including the following countries: - Included in Caribbean for APIS:
US Citizens Travel to the Caribbean by Month 2019
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While the Caribbean saw good growth comparing the first six months of 2019 with the same six months of 2018, growth slowed significantly in the third quarter with the onset of the sharp decline in US travel to the Dominican Republic which was down from the US by 24.6% in July, down 24.4% in August and down 33.0% in September. The travel and hospitality conglomerate Apple Leisure Group announced on Friday that it has put investments worth between US $500 and $600 million on hold due to a range of factors, including a lack of tourism promotion by the federal government and lower visitor numbers from the United States.
CEO Alejandro Zozaya told a press conference that four or five projects have been “put on pause,” explaining that the company has the land and necessary permits to build new hotels but for now construction won’t go ahead. He said the government’s decision to disband the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) and the consequent lack of marketing of Mexico abroad resulted in lower profits for the hotel industry this year. “Hotels weren’t as profitable in 2019 as in 2018 and 2017,” Zozaya said. “. . . The closure of the CPTM has hit us, it’s one of the factors that has hurt Mexico. Tourism from the United States has decreased,” Zozaya said. He said that another factor in Apple’s decision was that the supply of hotel rooms is growing faster than demand. “When demand doesn’t grow at the same pace as supply, [room] rates go down, but operational costs haven’t fallen,” Zozaya said. The strength of the US dollar and higher electricity rates have in fact caused them to rise, he said. The CEO charged that tourism hasn’t been a priority for federal governments for many years even though the industry contributes to 8% of GDP. However, Zozaya added that the private sector needs to do a better job of informing the government about the importance of tourism to the economy. To that end, representatives of the sector have met with officials from the Tourism and Foreign Affairs secretariats as well as the president’s chief of staff, Alfonso Romo. “We’re looking for a joint effort to promote tourism in Mexico and we see some strong potential in the collection of taxes that we’re [currently] missing out on . . . We see opportunities in cruise ships and taxes should be placed on digital platforms such as Airbnb,” Zozaya said. Although Apple is putting some of its projects on hold, the CEO said the company will still open six new hotels in Mexico by the end of next year. The conglomerate currently has 33 hotels in 15 Mexican destinations, most of which are AM resorts in Cancún, the Riviera Maya and Cozumel. It is also a large provider of charter flights, transporting one million international passengers a year to Mexico. Some tourism investors have big plans for Mexico, although the 100 billion pesos (US $5.1 billion) that has been earmarked for tourism infrastructure spending in the government’s National Infrastructure Plan is not scheduled to be spent until 2021-2022. |
Jim Hepple is an Assistant Professor at the University of Aruba and is Managing Director of Tourism Analytics. Archives
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