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…as September occupancy posts record
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Posted on Oct 13 2005
Hotel room occupancy in September this year was 79.65 percent—the highest for the month since 1997, according to the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands.
September room occupancy was an 8-percent increase from the 71.77-percent occupancy recorded last month. The association cautioned, however, that October figures would drop significantly as hotels have felt the effects of Japan Airlines’ flight suspension.
The average daily room rate for September was $81.51, the highest for the month since 2000.
According to HANMI statistics, average room occupancy in September of 1997 was 77.92 percent. The figure went down to 52.78 percent in the same month in 1998, a year when overall occupancy from January to December averaged at 58.05 percent due to the effects of the Asian currency crisis.
Room occupancy was slowly rebounding by 2000, but suffered a setback following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist bombings in the U.S. mainland which caused occupancy to plunge to 47.88 percent that month, and further down to an all-time low of 32.98 percent in October.
HANMI’s figures were based on monthly surveys of its 14 member hotels, which altogether have a total of over 2,400 rooms.
HANMI is a non-profit organization of hotels and tourism-related agencies and businesses. It was formed in 1985 to provide a forum for the sharing of ideas and common issues for the CNMI’s hotel industry. (PR)
