By the Caribbean Journal staff
After a slow start to 2014, the Caribbean hotel sector finished strong last year, according to year-end data from STR Inc.
The region’s hotel sector saw a 5.3 percent increase in occupancy in December, following a similar 3.7 percent improvement in November.
That put the region’s occupancy for the year up 1.5 percent, or 68 percent overall.
Caribbean hotel occupancy increased every month for the last eight months of 2014, according to the report.
The region’s hotels saw a 6.4 percent improvement in average daily rate in 2014, rising to $194.66, with an 8 percent improvement in RevPar, or revenue per available room, to $132.28 for the year.
STR data surveyed 1,913 hotels comprising 226,981 rooms for its report.