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More tourism dollars, but industry players' shares shrink with expansion
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
At first glance, it may appear that the tourism sector, which has seen earnings grow in 2008 by over three per cent and which is now expected to earn 11.2 per cent more in revenue for 2009/2010 fiscal year than in the previous one, according to the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), is weathering the economic downturn being experienced globally.
But a closer look at official statistics made available this week revealed that while the growing number of rooms for the accommodation of tourists may be floating the total amount of foreign exchange earned by the sector, others have had to close down leaving the rest to fight for smaller shares of a marginally growing pie.
Gross visitor expenditure in 2008 was estimated at US$1.98 billion, representing an increase of 3.4 per cent over the US$1.91 billion earned in 2007, while the number of stopovers that intended to stay in hotel accommodations increased from 1,086,664 in 2007 to 1,154,035 - an increase of 6.2 per cent in 2008 - according to the JTB's annual travel statistic report for 2008.
This was, however, against a 9.3 per cent increase in total hotel rooms to 20,043. The increase wasn't higher because even though all-inlcusive hotel rooms increased by 1,309 over the year, or 15 per cent, non-all- inclusives closed nearly 200 rooms.
Guesthouses also closed 50 rooms in 2008, while resort villas and cottages increased their number from 3,589 to 3,639.
The shortfall in growth in arrivals, of course translated into lower occupancy rates, while for many occupancy levels plunged towards uneconomic levels.
"Total room nights sold of 3,722,306 did not keep pace with the rate of increase in room capacity and only increased by 1.9 per cent in 2008 compared to 3,653,343 room nights sold in 2007," said the JTB report. "Hotel room occupancy was down by 2.8 percentage points, as it moved from 63.2 per cent in 2007 to 60.4 per cent in 2008."
But the average for the year included a bumper first quarter which saw visitor numbers jump over the previous year, while some hotels had not come on stream as yet. Hence, room occupancy levels were one to six percentage points higher up to March, and was even higher for other months up to the end of June.
But the second half of the year saw decline in occupancy rates for each and every month, which reached as deep as nine percentage points for some months - in October and November.
Not all areas saw consistent declines in occupancy levels for the second half of 2008.
In Montego Bay, where three resorts - Iberostar Rose Hall Beach & Iberostar Rose Hall Suites with a total 639 rooms and RIU Hotel Mahoe Bay with 681 - were opened, the annual hotel room occupancy rate didn't dip until August and only in November did it plunge to 49.8 per cent, down 7.4 percentage points. In December the levels jumped to 60.2 per cent, up from 52.2.
On the other hand, the resort area of Negril recorded an average hotel room occupancy rate of 54.9 per cent for 2008, which was almost 11 percentage points lower than in 2007. There the average room capacity increased by 461 rooms as a result of the opening of the Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort & Spa Hotel.
Moreover, operators in Negril at times were operating at as low as 31.5 per cent occupancy and by the end of the year were reporting occupancy levels as low as 15 percentage points lower than the comparative period in 2007.
Now, the JTB is projecting tourism earnings for 2009/2010 will be US$2.22 billion, 11.2 per cent higher than the year before.
But that now has to be considered against the last of three Iberostar properties at Rose Hall, Montego Bay, which opened in January 2009 with 295 rooms, the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston opened in February 2009 with 112 rooms.
Additionally, the first phase of the Palmyra Resort and Spa at Rose Hall is scheduled to open by the end of 2009.
The statistics validate my previous ruminations on tourism performance.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
At first glance, it may appear that the tourism sector, which has seen earnings grow in 2008 by over three per cent and which is now expected to earn 11.2 per cent more in revenue for 2009/2010 fiscal year than in the previous one, according to the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), is weathering the economic downturn being experienced globally.
But a closer look at official statistics made available this week revealed that while the growing number of rooms for the accommodation of tourists may be floating the total amount of foreign exchange earned by the sector, others have had to close down leaving the rest to fight for smaller shares of a marginally growing pie.
Gross visitor expenditure in 2008 was estimated at US$1.98 billion, representing an increase of 3.4 per cent over the US$1.91 billion earned in 2007, while the number of stopovers that intended to stay in hotel accommodations increased from 1,086,664 in 2007 to 1,154,035 - an increase of 6.2 per cent in 2008 - according to the JTB's annual travel statistic report for 2008.
This was, however, against a 9.3 per cent increase in total hotel rooms to 20,043. The increase wasn't higher because even though all-inlcusive hotel rooms increased by 1,309 over the year, or 15 per cent, non-all- inclusives closed nearly 200 rooms.
Guesthouses also closed 50 rooms in 2008, while resort villas and cottages increased their number from 3,589 to 3,639.
The shortfall in growth in arrivals, of course translated into lower occupancy rates, while for many occupancy levels plunged towards uneconomic levels.
"Total room nights sold of 3,722,306 did not keep pace with the rate of increase in room capacity and only increased by 1.9 per cent in 2008 compared to 3,653,343 room nights sold in 2007," said the JTB report. "Hotel room occupancy was down by 2.8 percentage points, as it moved from 63.2 per cent in 2007 to 60.4 per cent in 2008."
But the average for the year included a bumper first quarter which saw visitor numbers jump over the previous year, while some hotels had not come on stream as yet. Hence, room occupancy levels were one to six percentage points higher up to March, and was even higher for other months up to the end of June.
But the second half of the year saw decline in occupancy rates for each and every month, which reached as deep as nine percentage points for some months - in October and November.
Not all areas saw consistent declines in occupancy levels for the second half of 2008.
In Montego Bay, where three resorts - Iberostar Rose Hall Beach & Iberostar Rose Hall Suites with a total 639 rooms and RIU Hotel Mahoe Bay with 681 - were opened, the annual hotel room occupancy rate didn't dip until August and only in November did it plunge to 49.8 per cent, down 7.4 percentage points. In December the levels jumped to 60.2 per cent, up from 52.2.
On the other hand, the resort area of Negril recorded an average hotel room occupancy rate of 54.9 per cent for 2008, which was almost 11 percentage points lower than in 2007. There the average room capacity increased by 461 rooms as a result of the opening of the Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort & Spa Hotel.
Moreover, operators in Negril at times were operating at as low as 31.5 per cent occupancy and by the end of the year were reporting occupancy levels as low as 15 percentage points lower than the comparative period in 2007.
Now, the JTB is projecting tourism earnings for 2009/2010 will be US$2.22 billion, 11.2 per cent higher than the year before.
But that now has to be considered against the last of three Iberostar properties at Rose Hall, Montego Bay, which opened in January 2009 with 295 rooms, the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston opened in February 2009 with 112 rooms.
Additionally, the first phase of the Palmyra Resort and Spa at Rose Hall is scheduled to open by the end of 2009.
The statistics validate my previous ruminations on tourism performance.
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