By the Caribbean Journal staff

It was a sluggish month for the Caribbean’s hotel industry in October, according to the latest data from analytics firm STR.

The region posted its largest year-over-year decline in occupancy of 2018, with a 9.2 percent decline compared to the same month in 2017.

Overall, occupancy was at 52.3 percent, down from 57.6 percent in October 2017.

Average daily rates saw smaller declines, with just a 0.3 percent drop to $160.79, although revenues fell by 9.5 percent to $84.06 per room.

For the year, Caribbean hotel occupancy stands at 65.5 percent, down 1.5 percent from the first 10 months of 2017, while average daily rates are up 1.4 percent to $204.52 and revenues are down 0.1 percent to $133.87.

STR’s data surveyed 1,964 hotels comprising 252,825 rooms in the wider Caribbean region.

— CJ