Olympic City's Hotel Occupancy Rebounds Year Early

SALT LAKE CITY-The expected post-winter-Olympic lull for hotel owners in host cities is not playing out here. Historically, winter Olympics host cities experience RevPAR peaks during the Olympic year and then sustain valleys for the following two years. Salt Lake City, however, has rebounded a year early, according to a recent report by Jones Lang LaSalle.Salt Lake’s occupancy for 2003 was 60.3%, showing the expected post-Games valley after achieving 64.1% occupancy for 2002, the Games year, and 61.8% for 2001. This past July, Salt Lake’s occupancy rate of 69.1% was a level not seen since the Games year, and the 2004 year-to-date occupancy rate of 63.5% is an unusually strong rebound for the second year following the Olympics given the influx of rooms and supply/demand imbalance the build-up typically creates post-games, according to the report.Better yet, Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau president Dianne Nelson Binger tells GlobeSt.com that the numbers for August are continuing the trend. Occupancy in August was 71.2%, she says, taking the year-to-date percentage to 64.5%.Certainly, the national trend towards a recovering hotel sector has supported this upward movement in occupancy and RevPAR, but the early success nonetheless goes a long way toward proving that the city is not overbuilt as some have said. Moreover, the report finds that the pieces are in place for sustained success.”As an Olympic host, Salt Lake City demonstrated its ability to host major world-class events, and boasts an Olympic legacy of sporting, tourism and municipal infrastructure,” says Melinda McKay, senior vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. “This, in addition to its status as a growing Delta hub, as well as the site for a growing entertainment complex like Crossroads Plaza Mall that features mainstay retail anchor Nordstrom, provides strong indicators for the city’s tourism and convention industry.”Delta airlines recently announced plans for growing its Salt Lake City operation. With its re-deployment of the company’s Dallas/Ft. Worth assets, Salt Lake City is poised for a higher influx of visitors. As well, at the end of last month, Nordstrom, Inc. announced its intent to remain in Downtown Salt Lake City as part of a major redesign of Crossroads Plaza Mall.