A record 15.5 million people visited Miami in 2015, up nearly 1 million from the previous year. The Greater Miami & the Beaches Visitors Bureau trumpeted the numbers at a ritzy breakfast this past Friday at the Rusty Pelican on Key Biscayne. Save for Venezuela, every major market, both domestic and international, saw their influx of visitors to Miami increase. Even Brazilian tourism increased after a bit of a downturn in 2014. Together, those visitors dropped an estimated $24.4 billion into the local economy.
That all seemed like great news, but already there are grumblings that Miami’s hotel industry may be in for a bumpy adjustment period.
Sure, the average price for a night’s stay in Miami was up $11 to $195.75, and, sure, occupancy was up slightly to 78.1 percent in 2015.
But the numbers from the first three months of 2016 aren’t encouraging.
According to Bloomberg News, hotel revenue per available room (or RevPAR, as its known in short) was down 2.7 percent in the first three months of 2016 compared to the same period last year. Nationally, RevPAR ebbed up 2.7 percent. Occupancy in Miami was down 1.9 percent. Average room rates also dipped 1.7 percent.
By MiamiNewTimes, excerpt posted on SouthFloridaReporter.com May 12, 23016
