The
hotel industry had much to be thankful for over the busy
Thanksgiving weekend, and it should expect plenty of cheer during
the upcoming holiday season.
Lodging industry
specialist PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that year-over-year
hotel occupancy over the Thanksgiving weekend rose 0.7%, to 52.9%.
It projects that hotel occupancy between Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 will
hit 48.8%, an increase of 1.7%.
PWC estimates that
occupancy for the Thanksgiving and holiday seasons will be up
2.6%.
PWC said several
factors are fueling the increase in hotel bookings.
Lower gasoline
prices, gains in personal income, expectations of favorable
year-end bonuses, increased inbound international travel and no
events, such as last years hurricanes, that could negatively affect
hotel supply and demand are among the factors that will result in a
year of record demand for hotels, said Bjorn Hanson, a principal
with PWC.
Should PWCs forecast
hold, the strong holiday season will cap what has already been a
good year for the hotel industry.
PWC is projecting
that the national hotel occupancy average for 2006 will hit 64.2%,
the highest occupancy level in a decade.
The immediate outlook
for hotels is rosy, as well. The firms research indicated that
revenue per available room, or RevPAR, for hotels in major gateway
cities such as Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco was
expected to grow 9% next year compared with 4.7% in
2006.
However, growth in
occupancy was forecasted to slow a bit. National occupancy was
expected to be 64.3% in 2007, a 0.1% increase.
While occupancy
growth will slow down, occupancy will remain the highest it has
been since 1996.