Excerpt from STR
The summer travel season, helped by growing vaccination rates around the world, allowed Caribbean hotels to pick up steam in their road to recovery.
Regardless of world region, the markets that truly stand out are those with favorable comparisons to 2019—the last “normal year” prior to the pandemic. In the Caribbean, we have been comparing 2021 vs. 2019 data for year-to-date periods to remove the effects of seasonality, which are usually substantial in the region. As of August, we saw two of 14 markets with hotel occupancy near or above the 2019 comparable.
The only Caribbean market to achieve an August year-to-date occupancy level higher than its 2019 comparable was the U.S Virgin Islands. The market reported an occupancy of 73.4% through the first eight months of the year, which was 8.4% higher than the same period in 2019.
Puerto Rico reported a 64.9% occupancy level, which came in relatively close to the 2019 comparable (68.1%). Prior to August, the market had seen eight consecutive months of occupancy improvement, with July occupancy even surpassing the same month in 2020, 2019 and 2018. Despite a month-over-month decline in August, Puerto Rico’s occupancy remained similar to levels seen earlier in the summer.
The U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico have benefitted from the U.S. corridor and the fact that U.S. travelers do not need a passport or a different currency. Additionally, domestic tourism in Puerto Rico is quite popular and has carried this market through the COVID-19 storm.
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