Above: the Carambola resort in St Croix (CJ Photo)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
The Caribbean hotel industry has gotten off to a solid if not spectacular start in 2014, according to data from hotel analytics firm STR.
The region’s hotels saw occupancy rise to 72.6 percent in January, a 2.8 percent rise over the same month in 2013.
The industry’s average daily rate also rose by 5.6 percent, up to $245.46.
The strongest growth, however, came in revenue per available room, or RevPar, which increased by 8.6 percent to $164.74. That came after a strong month of December in which RevPar grew by 10.4 percent year over year.
The region finished last year with an overall occupancy of 67.1 percent, a 2.1 percent increase over the year 2012.
STR’s data covered 1,888 census properties and 225,409 rooms in the Caribbean region.