Compared to the previous iteration of this study in Q4 2023, overall business confidence for the next 12 months has held steady, with 35% of respondents rating their confidence at an '8' or higher on a 10-point scale.
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell 2.2% year over year (YoY) in March, marking the first such decline since February 2021.
Global leisure demand beginning to bloom - U.S. RevPAR moderated after three unsteady weeks.
As expected, Dubai hotel occupancy dipped slightly at the beginning of Ramadan, with occupancy fluctuating between 60 - 74%, with the exception of the Easter weekend when Dubai saw occupancy levels climb as high as 78.9% on 29 March (the night before Easter Sunday).
STR's global 'bubble chart' update for the four weeks ending 6 April 2024 shows 60% of markets with year-over-year growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR). That volume was noticeably less than the 77% of markets with growth in our last update, showing more of the world has reached a normalization period.
Global occupancy reached the highest level of the year (68.4%). Key country occupancy ranged from 76.4% in the U.K. to 59.3% in Indonesia. Spain, Italy and China all saw occupancy above 72%, with only China showing a year-over-year decrease.
The 60% range for the event period (26 July - 11 August) is up from 50% three months ago. For context, the weeks leading up to the opening ceremony show occupancy on the books in just the 20% range.
Most of the largest global countries saw RevPAR decline as well, which is in line with past years and the Easter holiday.
The market's highest daily occupancy level was seen on Saturday, 16 March (98.6%) - the night of the final round of the Six Nations championship between Scotland and Ireland at Aviva Stadium. The market's daily occupancy levels were above the 70% mark throughout the month apart from two days.
Helped by the annual Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Jeddah's hotel industry reported performance growth across the metrics, according to March preliminary data from CoStar.