With one month of data remaining to process, the Caribbean’s hotel industry has a shot to reach its highest levels ever in average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR).
Year to date through November, the region posted a year-over-year ADR increase of 6.1% to US$213.65 and a RevPAR jump of 3.0% to US$136.12. Although occupancy fell 2.9% to 63.7%, hoteliers were able to push rates, which in turn, led to the aforementioned RevPAR growth.
The ADR and RevPAR levels are the highest on record for a November year to date time period in STR’s Caribbean database.
As reported last month, the Caribbean Tourism Organization is forecasting an 8-9% increase in tourism arrivals for the year.
That would certainly help explain hotelier pricing even with more competition in the marketplace.
When looking at November data on its own, occupancy dropped 2.1% and ADR decreased 1.9%, which resulted in a 4.0% decline in RevPAR. On the islands where STR maintains a sufficient reporting sample, Saint Lucia led in year-over-year ADR growth (+30.9%), which drove the only double-digit jump in RevPAR (+25.1%).
Turks and Caicos experienced the highest rise in occupancy (+9.9%). Puerto Rico saw the second-largest increase in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (+9.2%), ADR (+8.5%) and RevPAR (+11.6%).
Year to date through November, the Bahamas has recorded the only double-digit lift in occupancy (+13.0%), which resulted in the largest increase in RevPAR (+14.5%).
The Bahamas has done a phenomenal job in absorbing new room inventory (The Baha Mar has around 2,300 rooms spread across three different hotel brands).
Investment and development also continues in the region. There are currently 59 hotels accounting for 14,623 rooms in construction in the Caribbean. This represents a 9.7% year-over-year increase in rooms in construction. The Dominican Republic continues to lead in construction activity with 5,403 rooms being built.
Hoteliers in the region have an opportunity to contribute to the overall benchmarking efforts in the region. Just email info@str.com to participate in our STAR program.
Additional questions regarding hotel data reporting in the Caribbean can be directed Rico Louw at rlouw@str.com.