Hotel demand has returned to main Central and South American destinations in the first two months of this year, according to London-based STR Global.
In terms of occupancy, increases in hotel demand appear to precede improvements in the average daily rate (ADR). This is welcome news for hoteliers in the city, who faced difficult market conditions last year as the global recession, the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, and the recent Chilean earthquake dominated the news.
"Rather than growth, we expect a year of recovery," said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. "This is particularly true for Brazil, which is gearing up for the 2014 FIFA World Cup as well as the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016." real estate agents in qatar
Last year, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the only one of the seven cities studied to record monthly demand growth. During the last quarter of 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina (October 2009), Mexico City, Mexico (November 2009), and Sao Paulo, Brazil (December 2009) began to report demand growth. Demand improved only in the first two months of this year in Panama City, Panama, San Jose, Costa Rica, and Santiago, Chile.
Most destinations saw an increase in occupancy as a result of the returning market. Only Panama City (-3%) and San Jose (-2%) saw decreases in occupancy as opposed to the same period last year. This development was driven in part by the growing availability of hotel rooms in these two markets. For the first two months of 2010, Panama City (+8%) and San Jose (+5%) had the largest supply increases of the seven cities.
Only Rio de Janeiro (+17%) and Sao Paulo (+28%) reported growth in terms of the US dollar, indicating that ADR is still under pressure. As the exchange rate fluctuated (for example, from 2.37 Real to the Dollar in February 2009 to 1.86 Real to the Dollar in February 2010), the ADR increased (Source: Oanda.com).
In December, there were 197 new hotels under construction in Central and South America.
According to the STR Global Construction Pipeline Report from December 2011, the Central and South American hotel growth pipeline includes 197 hotels with a total capacity of 28,897 rooms.
If all 5,952 rooms in the country's active pipeline open, Panama City, Panama, will have the highest projected growth (59.6%) among the markets in the region. San Jose, Costa Rica (+13.0% with 770 rooms), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (+11.6% with 2,726 rooms), Lima, Peru (+7.1% with 381 rooms), and Santiago, Chile (+4.9% with 398 rooms) are among the other markets that have seen substantial growth.